ane lie eS 
eae oe 
Sas ne ee pk ee 


gle gtmitet. 


Sree 


ae 


"ee fr 
~ — 


ne pane See 3 3 
= Fa ae RITE : : 
% ‘Z R 3 Fee Ae ee : gh ve aa = 
: m hee 5 = 7 a Z att, Ss ry : ele. 
Cats eo : = Z = arn ee ; 
estate abe . = fan : aa ae 
ex : a et ; - ‘ Fat . 
ae i my : = : Z : F : See in ine. 
; } : eat? ; : : : See 
: aces : : : Bes: 


Tae 


Fas Panha hao ar 





JUL 7 - 192 
4 


| Ss 
SM oc1041, ge 






Division F_ | 3 4 
Section . G Z..E. 79 





mt vt waa 
akan 1, 
a) < 


ca 
a 
a igh 





MONGREL VIRGINIANS 





MONGREL VIRGINIANS 

THE WIN TRIBE N OF PNET 

JUL 7 - Wee 
%Y 






BY » 
ARTHUR H. ESTABROOK 
Carnegie Institution of Washington 
AND 


IVAN E. McDOUGLE 
Goucher College 





BALTIMORE 
THE WILLIAMS & WILKINS COMPANY 
1926 


This study is a contribution from the Depart- 
ment of Genetics of the Carnegie Institution 
of Washington. 


CopyricnutT, 1926 
THE WILLIAMS & WILKINS COMPANY 


Made in United States of America 
Published March, 1926 


COMPOSED AND PRINTED AT THE 
WAVERLY PRESS 
FOR 
Tue Witiiams & WitKins ComPANy 
BAttmoreE, Mp., U.S. A. 


Ambiguous of race they stand 
By one disowned, scorned of another, 
Not knowing where to stretch a hand, 
And cry! “My sister,” or “My brother!” 


—COUNTEE CULLEN. 


Ny rte Ce 
iN Hey ASE 
MRE BL e 





FOREWORD 


Within recent years there has been a growing 
interest in the subject of racial mixtures particu- 
larly in the South. The published material has 
for the most part been frankly political or racial 
propaganda or has taken us into the field of 
sociological generalizations. 

This book offers to this field of study an inten- 
sive investigation of a small group of Indian-negro- 
white crosses who have lived in the same locality 
for over a hundred years. This century of resi- 
dence has fortunately been in a county and a 
state where official records have been kept regu- 
larly and preserved intact without a single loss. 
Again the commonwealth has had a vital statistics 
law since 1853 with the exception of 1896-1912. 
With all these data it has been possible to check 
the Federal census records decade by decade to 
complete the family tree to the present generation. 
The entire genealogy broken into small portions 
will be found in the various charts scattered 
throughout the first half of the book. 

To make the study more valuable the two 
authors—one a specialist in eugenic research, 

7 


8 FOREWORD 


the other in social research—have codperated 
over a period of years in exhausting not only the 
historical and genetic background but in viewing 
the present generation from every possible angle. 
All living members of the Win tribe have been 
visited time and again by one or both authors. 
In addition every known white, colored or Indian 
person in the county, state or nation who could 
furnish information concerning the deceased or 
living has been consulted and asked to give any 
material of value to the investigation. 

As the closing pages of the book will show, this 
is not the only group of its kind in the South. 
It has been studied first, however, because for the 
various reasons given above it has the most com- 
plete set of records of any of the triple crosses 
known. 

Deep appreciation must be given to Dr. Charles 
B. Davenport of the Eugenics Record Office for 
his active codperation in the research; to the 
various state and county officials for their aid, 
and to the highly efficient college women who 
assisted in the field work, but they must remain 
unnamed. 


CONTENTS 


SEPIA VIL GRID EC tarcctelts see's seksi Mise gisiels' a's atic ph isis we hs 
HEEPOCUCHION SE eae le autos wilca na whice Meh Mis aie arctaes Bk 
CAGE ViEALISLOIV Ae arene eehe Te ete oe oa a ete ate cane 
The White Brown Family ...............06- 
EUS ECan LOW DS ccrantenioat eienccte ual tala area ake tle 
ENE tICIATN ONES curstaniaina wats cietoaiets ashes 

PO CHLLASIOU ters ene haeie eu ai rte alae tS CRT Shuts 
CCUNCIE Cot tbe ani e cua thesis rete ate LS ener ae 
LORS APOE cre ere ai tens ou ied ana eyes 
MOI ACU eee. ot ienest cage hale es tai ius eid ected 


RPHGISER VIOTES 4 ie lgg oe beet e 


HA ICOHOLISITTOO Se oo ener arent MerG te cng NaC ue ar Ne a 
WETIETEAL THISCAS@LL a ene tay valet sleeve 
SERIDETCULOSISH abc ete ees rion cs GPs echt Peed Soh ake taal gi 


SCHOOIS ween ce 


SUIT CHANOCIVI ISSIONGELISCOTY. 15 by tere lute eae eave 2 
WEATT IA SGCTVOCOLUS a erie airiciacn Bid etwrord 4 enw oot side 
COTE REM RN OARIOAS Son Lehi N at cunigs oon raw YS eel ee 
CTE NE RAL LOUMMA Ric, tortie nae son dae a seat yee er Otters 
Tal p59 SISTA) Bre PURE dy Coe org Ua al ea g gRatn Mi Cane hg ON re a Re DE Sma RG 
Virginia Racial Integrity Law ot 1924.............. 





CON AM RW NY = 


\o 


CHARTS 


pearly) Generation of/ the, WiNS.ass secu pas coe cas dienes lke 
ee UeVWOILeZDTOWIL EADY y see. cic hoi) et aerate Noah ita tae 
. The Half-breed Brown Ser etelie Selene ivvenGwors te prs We 
. The Bill B. Brown Family. . 26 
. The Amelia Family... AP ORE Whe AE rE oer aT TA 
Morea lnhonse Een Faria TERNAL OAT NT ae ak ie V2 
rane Alta- am LONG MAMLV 7 obs ok dams del tl ie ween ed 
Orbe Kopert) Brown Mami vay ire evn anes ve ei telecon eed 
PLE 7a BOW LAMY. cid wai wives tate rahe 
ENE CODEN ROSS: HAMUY: fancier teeing he Oe ee ee RE: 
See Se ESLCL Eat Verne boa soe y My lait S Mahe a vista a TOM 
pel De Austin ROsANNA Pamilyy sales. cng oe dv eae Or 
PER OID AUS CAIN Vee sees y ae suath advise cis 59 
PEL EAA LCLSOY A AIT Yee elt chih copia eh wae eat oa th Wale ee, Red 
Phe tal-Ada Jones amily, sag sk va likecy ee cel de eidel ana ed 
Wet He ialtenreed Jones LANE, 4h. Slee. ad Sea woaten as we a OO 
ie ei aga EMD PUTO Seis At Oa ae fe 
. The Gus Family. . 85 
Sine atin Ramil DX oeeg he: satsiiag alan hcl tty eae kee Coe 
. The Webster Burton Family... SOP sy ears Ge ar HD 
. The Hamlin Family.. SOLA Cae: Sar nT a ante? a BO 
. The Abraham Hold or Farnive 112 
. The Saul Lillie Family. . Ag Jet ayia che eae Bs) 
Pike Anieeati ali Parnas OI Dees eD ce CSE VEN WS) eae Soucy ee 
PUG Aare eTAlcine Pamillynccws aioe a4 mie tercwien Lat oe 
eel HEAVY LOL GOR AIIU Wt crue yoo ate wight ead oe aie he othe vce a COE 
Pe Lat AICE CAIN ete scat Wasta shelesa ata ale dak wi sige alenep Eto 


TABLES 


ecPopulation cage aes eee Eee ee oo teak oa ee oe se Se 
: panera eom nn AUN Uhac 146 
. Consanguinity. . SANSA Vents ae aR eR Re ver . 149 
. Legitimacy.. Ke seth he 4 
. Results Obtained nah Stanton een af Binet: 
Simon Test. . . Earth 4 od roe atc Lu VA 
. School Apandenee Lae! aera, Waray eR AOE 
, Racial’ Claccification oe eae eatin seen 177 


12 


THE WIN TRIBE 


INTRODUCTION 


Situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains in Ab! County, Virginia, is a group of 
people of mixed bloods, known locally by a certain 
term but designated here as the Win Tribe. The 
general population of Ab County consider them 
neither white nor negro. The Wins themselves 
claim to be of Indian descent. They are found 
In an area approximately eight miles long and 
varying in width up to four miles. There are 
about five hundred people in this group. They 
live generally in log houses or rough shacks; a 
few are in board houses. ‘They are mostly renters 
on the land; a few own their own homes and land, 
Their main source of income is from tobacco 
raising on shares. Some few work as laborers 
for the white farmers near-by. One mission 
school of a church has furnished practically the 
only education offered to these folks. This 
mission also has had a chapel for some twenty 


1 With a few obvious exceptions all names of persons and 
places in this book are fictitious. 
13 


14 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


years. ‘Transportation into and through the 
area is easy during the summer months; difficult 
during the winter. The one dirt road which cuts 
the area into halves becomes impassible in winter 
except by horseback. A rural free delivery route 
supplies mail each day. This Win group is set 
apart because of its “color’’ and because it has 
been considered an inferior set. They take no 
part in any activities outside of their particular 
area; they have no connection with the political 
activities in the county in which they live. The 
white folks look down on them, as do the negroes, 
and this, with their dark skin color, has caused 
a segregation from the general community. 

They are described variously as ‘low down’’ 
yellow negroes, as Indians, as ‘‘mixed.’’ No one, 
however, speaks of them as white. The Wins 
themselves in general claim the Indian descent 
although most of them realize they are ‘‘mixed,”’ 
preferring to speak of the ‘‘Indian” rather than of 
a possibility of a negro mixture in them. A few 
claim to be white. The term by which they have 
been known locally for many years is that used to 
designate the negro slaves who were given their 
freedom by their masters before the Civil War. 
This term clung to these freed negroes. ‘These 


THE WIN TRIBE 15 


freed negroes mated with themselves or the half- 
breed Indians in the county. Because the freed 
ones were looked down upon by other negroes, 
having no masters, and also were unable to 
associate with the whites, this group necessarily 
remained separate and the name of the freed 
negroes clung to the whole. Hence this group 
described had come to be called such in earlier 
days. The term Wins, however, in Ab County, 
has remained only attached to this mixed group, 
most of the mixture having taken place previous 
to the Civil War. 

The study of this tribe has been carried on from 
two angles; genetics and from that of sociology. 
It has been made through search of official records 
in the Ab County Courthouse and at the Bureau 
of Vital Statistics of the State of Virginia at Rich- 
mond, conferences with white people who have 
lived in or near the Win region, and the mission 
workers, past and present, and by visits to the 
homes of the Wins themselves. The study has 
included both mental and physical characteristics, 
modes of living, earning capacity, schooling and 
special customs. It has lasted over a period of 
two years beginning in January, 1923. The senior 
students in sociology in one of the colleges in 


16 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Virginia have assisted in the field work and in the 
tabulation of the data gathered. 


PRINTED DATA ABOUT THE WINS 


The Wins have never been studied in any way. 
One article on the Ab Indians, as they are locally 
called in addition to the term Wins, appeared in 
the Richmond (Virginia) Dispatch in one of the 
Sunday issues some years ago. 

At other times, more recently, there have been 
letters in the newspapers discussing the group, 
and since the founding of the Indian Mission 
about the year 1900, some short articles and notes 
have been published in the mission papers of the 
church. These are mostly of a cursory nature 
and written in the main to describe the activities 
of the mission. Where any historical statements 
are included, they have been based in general on 
the article in the Dispatch. Otherwise, nothing 
has been written of the group. 


EARLY HISTORY OF THE WINS 


The present study shows that the Wins start 
from four fountain heads; one a white man named 
Brown, and the other three from Indians, named 
respectively Lane, Thomas and Jones. The 


THE WIN TRIBE 19 


negro blood now present came in later. , Briefly, 
the history is as follows. A white man named 
Brown married a Dolly Thomas, either a full-blood 
or a half-blood Indian. These two had many 
children, half-breeds, by the name of Brown, 
which children have in turn married and their 
descendants are now found in the Coon mountain 





THE 
HALF-BREED 
JONES 


LINE. 


CHART 1. EARty GENERATION OF THE WINS 


regions of Ab County. Dolly Thomas’ father, 
William Thomas, was known to have been an 
Indian and lived on the Ban River in that county. 
It is not known, however, from what tribe he, 
or the other Indians to be mentioned, came, 
whether Cherokee from the Southern Appa- 
Jachians or Powhatan from Eastern Virginia or 
Tuscarora from Southeastern Virginia. It is 


18 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


evident that they were wandering Indians as Ab 
County never belonged to any particular tribe of 
Indians. Legend has it that these Indians were 
travelling from their lands in the Carolinas on to 
Washington to see the Great Father just after the 
Revolutionary War and that for some reason 
these few stopped in Ab County. Another daugh- 
ter of William Thomas married an Ed Jones, an 
Indian, on December 6, 1790, the official record of 
the marriage being found in the Ab Courthouse. 
This license does not state the color of the people 
concerned here. That fact is deduced from the 
statements of the people of Ab County and from 
the information secured from some of the older 
Wins. ‘The son of this Ed Jones, named Ned, and 
born about 1791, a half-breed, married his first 
cousin on his mother’s side, a girl named Iders, 
and had a set of children named Jones, also half- 
breeds. ‘These Jones have increased in number 
and now form at least one half of the Win families 
now in the region. ‘The name Jones is also found 
in Virginia in 1746 and later in what is now Ac 
County, this region being north of the James 
River. This name is white and in certain parts of 
the county a good name. A third Indian strain 
comes in through a John Lane, a full blood Indian, 


THE WIN TRIBE 19 


born 1780, his daughter having married into the 
half-breed Brown family. 

All these people lived on or near Coon Moun- 
tain, about seven miles west of Ab Courthouse in 
Ab County. Their children intermarried with 
each other, with a few of the white families nearby 
and a few matings, of an illegitimate nature, took 
place with the negroes, some who were slaves and 
some free, the latter being spoken of as “‘the free 
issue.” ‘The early mixture of the Indian and the 
white and their settlement on Coon Mountain, 
in an isolated area, caused them to be separated 
socially from the white folks of the country who 
looked down upon them because of the mixture. 
It has also been said that the negroes have always 
looked down upon the mixture, especially in the 
earlier period when there were slaves in the state. 
This race feeling caused further segregation until 
after a period these Browns and Jones came to be 
considered a separate group and the name Win was 
given to them. 

Although the family group might be considered 
as the descendants of one William Thomas, it will 
be described in three sections; the white collaterals 
of William Brown who lived at one time in Ab 
County, Virginia, and later went away; the Indian- 
white Browns; and the Jones. 


20 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


THE WHITE BROWN FAMILY 


Examination of the land grant records in the 
State Capitol at Richmond, Virginia, and of the 
deeds and wills in the county clerk’s offices of 
Ac and Ab Counties of the same state show that 
the Brown family was migrating west along the 
James River beginning about 1730. A William 





CHART 2. THE WHITE BROowN FAMILY 


Brown is found just south of Richmond in Chester- 
field County in 1752, a Thomas Brown a short 
distance up the James River from Richmond in 
1737 and a William and a John Brown owned land 
on south and north branches of the James further 
west, on Willis River and on Rockfish River, 
this in 1750. In 1769, a Robert Brown was living 
on his own land of several hundred acres on the 


THE WIN TRIBE 21 


south side of Jones Creek in Ab County. This is 
in that part of the county southeast of Ab Court- 
house and east of the line of the present Southern 
Railway. He was still living there in 1778 when 
he died leaving some property. It is probable 
that he had three sons; Sam, Hen and Bill. Sam, 
born about 1750, married, on April 6, 1779, and 
had one child, born 1790, who was married twice. 
This line has been lost. Hen, the brother of Sam, 
and married the same day, died the same year, 
1799. The inventory of his estate, as given in the 
records, shows a personal property of $25,000, 
this list of property including a number of slaves, 
one negro wench, Kate, valued at 800 pounds, 
sterling. The amount of land owned by Hen is 
not shown. Bill is considered to be the full 
brother of Hen and Sam because of general refer- 
ences in the wills and deeds of that period, al- 
though the statement is not specifically made, 
and also because Sam was made the executor of 
his will in 1777. Bill at the time of his death 
had a personal estate of $2500; a goodly amount 
in the latter part of the eighteenth century. 
Because of the fact that these Browns owned 
slaves and that their personal property holdings 
were large for that region and time, it is assumed 


22 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


with reason, that the people of this group were of 
white blood and no doubt part of that same Brown 
family which had come up the James River from 
near Richmond. It is also probable that this 
Brown family was of English descent. This Bill, 
who had land and personal property in Ab County, 
had three sons, Andy, Bill and a third, name un- 
known. Andy Brown lived in Ab County, was 
married June 18, 1794, and died in 1801, leaving 
five children; all born, of course, between 1794 and 
1801. Three of these were married in Ab County 
in the years immediately after 1822. The other 
two were also married but only the name of one 
consort is known. The wife of one died about 
1840. At this time the family had gone west 
and the only trace of them has been found in 
T— County, Illinois, in 1848. One grandson 
was found to have lived in that county and was 
recognized as a prominent citizen and a grocer by 
trade. This man had a couple of daughters who 
went to Galesburg, Illinois, several years ago. 

The other son of Bill Brown was also named Bill 
and he married Dollie Thomas, the half-breed, 
and his descendants, very numerous in number, 
have remained in Ab County in the Coon Moun- 
tain region. If the legend of the Indians regard- 


THE WIN TRIBE 23 


ing the existence of a Sampson Brown is true, it is 
evident that Bill senior was the one, and he may 
have also been called Sampson or had that for a 
middle name, although his will uses only the name 
Bill. It would seem that the legend that the 
Browns were Portuguese has no basis for fact 
from any data now available. 

It appears then that the original Brown stock 
was at least average with if not better than the 
common white population of Virginia in the earlier 
days. 


THe INDIAN BROWNS 


The Brown family has been the aristocratic part 
of the Wins. This family has had less or con- 
sidered that it had less mixing with the negro, 
and has felt itself superior to the Jones who have 
had more admixture with the colored race, part of 
it openly. This aristocratic feeling shows itself 
in an attitude of superior social status and general 
superiority over the Jones and particularly the 
Blacks, a branch of the Jones who have decided 
negro physical characteristics. In some cases the 
feeling has become very personal as in the case 
of Nannie Black, mentioned later. These Browns 
have “looked down” on the others for many 


24 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


years but at the present time it is found more 
in the older folks than in the younger. The 
Browns have considered themselves more ‘‘In- 
dian” than the others but in studying this group 
it will be seen that there is some negro blood in 
that family which has been brought in since the 
half-breed mating at the beginning, and that the 
superiority, therefore, is more fancied than real. 





CHART 3. THE HALF-BREED BROWN FAMILY 


Bill Brown, born probably about 1770 in Ab 
County, Virginia, of white stock, as already 
noticed, married Dollie Thomas, the daughter of 
Wm. Thomas, a full-blooded Indian. This man 
purchased in 1833, four hundred acres of land on 
Coon Mountain in Ab County for $400; and on 
this tract, known as the ‘Brown Settlement,” 


THE WIN TRIBE 25 


built a humble dwelling in a little cove on the 
east side of the mountain. Here ‘“‘he farmed a 
little and lived a retired life and died,” ‘‘a peace- 
able citizen,” in 1861. Nothing is known at all 
of his wife other than her stock, Indian, and that 
she was “dark.” Six children were born to this 
couple, all of whom were dark skinned, had long 
black hair and were typical “Indian” in make-up. 
They all lived on the land, raised a little corn and 
some tobacco and had a precarious existence. 
They kept to themselves. They were not white 
neither did they consider themselves negro. They 
are reported in the early census records as “free 
persons of color.” 

The oldest of these children, Albert, born about 
1795, is unknown except as the father, by a white 
woman of low social instincts, Mary Johnson, 
of an illegitimate child, Abraham Johnson, born 
1848, who will be found again as the consort of one 
of the Jones. The second in this fraternity was 
Bill B. Brown, born 1799, probably near Coon 
Mountain. He was a typical Indian, copper 
colored, with a broad face. He had no education 
but was very provident. He had some land 
which he acquired from his father and sold 150 
acres of this on Coon Mountain for one dollar an 


*HetOdy “11D V1ORT vanvural many 


AIWV] NMOUG ‘G¢ Tg IHL ‘Pp LaVHO 


: *x1INVd 
evs ’ ES * TING “KIOWA ONO “RIM 
sHadny (22) nagiza-vey -_—sXTIAVS LTIa WSL s ASNOHATV 
aa is Lia} ais 44s = 
*KmOuR * sanot 
pad TWH zQIv1 


“NMOUG =mMOUd | -y, nmoug | WsT cinor 
“HOV GIMGH INddVC | NOU waaNva)) NIN gana) | “NA TILA “youve oe Viv NITY GTUd 


*NOSAHOr 
aIsns j °a Tila 


26 


THE WIN TRIBE fy 


acre. He had two children by his first wife; 
nothing is known of them. His second wife was 
Susie Johnson, unknown as to physical traits or 
build but white in color, the Johnson strain in 
Ab County and the Coon Mountain region having 
been white in the beginning. Susie and Mary 
were sisters. Bill B. and Susie had some fourteen 
children in all. Some of them have been darker 
in complexion than others but all characteristically 
Indian. The oldest, Amelia Brown, born 1845, 
was of medium dark complexion and when young 
was spoken of as very good looking. At the age 
of eighteen, she had an illegitimate child, Amanda, 
by a white man of intelligence and ability, who 
had come to Virginia from another state, 
and two years later another illegitimate child, 
Eloise, called ‘‘E].”” These two are discussed 
later in detail. In 1867, she married Adam 
Brown, a cousin, son of Al Brown. He looked 
like an Indian but “had long tight corkscrew 
curls and was medium dark in skin color.” 
He was not very bright mentally, was a laborer, and 
uneducated, as were all the others of the Wins 
at this period. Amelia had four children by 
Adam. Nothing is known of the first two other 
than a birth record; Alice, the third, born 1871, 


28 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


skin copper color, with black curly hair, has 
learned to read and write but is not very intelli- 
gent, and has been unchaste and steals. She 
married a cousin, of the Jones, has several children 
and maintains a very poor standard of living in 
her home. The children, of varying ability, are 
described under the father. The fourth, Alice’s 
brother, Alexander, or ‘‘Alec,’’ born about 1872, 
has left the Win region but is supposed to be in 
the same county and is now living with his father’s 
last wife. He is a typical Win, unintelligent 
and very stubborn in make-up. He has never 
married. He works as a farm hand. 

Amelia and her husband separated in 1873 and 
she later had two more illegitimate children. 
The first was Alfred Brown, born 1875, and it said 
that Adam Brown was his father. Alfred has 
always been a laborer, never rising much above the 
level of a poor woodchopper. He is a good hand 
to work but is unambitious, inefficient, dishonest 
and very weak in character. One has spoken of 
him as “the meanest scoundrel in the county.’ 
He has never been associated with the church 
mission at any time. He married Louise Hall, 
August 6, 1905, by whom he has eleven children. 
He and his wife have separated because of her 


THE WIN TRIBE 29 


licentious behavior recently, during which she 
has “taken up” with Adelbert Brown, another 
Win. Louise is the daughter of Andrew Hall, 
a light mulatto, and Lu Ethel Black, a Jones negro 
mixture. She has no characteristics of an Indian 
whatever and gives the appearance of “‘a mean 
white woman with a little negro in her.” Intel- 


at Mi 
ADAM 
BROWN. 
muino, HARMON = ELOISE CHARLIE DeLGHE | ALICE ALFXANDER LOUISE ALVA | ATHENA 
4 JONES JONES. RALL. BROWN, 
THE 
SIE 
SAUL-LILLIE 
WILLETT 
ra OG) (kG ain 
A 5 


A 


CuHart 5. THe AMELIA FAMILY 


lectually she is of fair ability, more capable than 
her husband. All of Alfred and Louise’s eleven 
children have straight black hair, and copper 
skin and have no negro appearance. All of these 
children have fair ability in school, much better 
than the average Win. ‘‘A,’’? the oldest daughter, 
born 1906, reached the seventh grade and now has 


2 Letters are used to indicate children in order of birth. 


30 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


a rather good range of information and is bright 
and quick in her reactions both physically and 
mentally. She has worked as a housemaid and 
was doing well until recently, March 1924, when 
she had an illegitimate child, the father being in 
question but known to be one of two men. The 
mother, Louise, has been keeping a disorderly 
house for some time and it is felt that ‘‘A”’ and her 
next younger sister, ““B,” have been in very poor 
surroundings more recently. “B,’ born 1908, 
did very well in school, but was not as bright as 
her older sister. She lives at home. The next 
four younger children attend school very irregu- 
larly and hence are backward in their school work. 
“G,” a boy of seven, was born with a paralysis of 
both legs below the hips. The physician of the 
State Orthopedic Clinic states that this was due 
to a clot on the brain, ‘‘G” having been examined 
at the clinic in 1923. His mentality is typical of a 
Win. 

Alva Brown, born 1879, the other illegitimate 
child of Amelia, was by a white man but otherwise 
unknown. He grew up with no schooling and 
became a tenant farmer. He married, in 1902, 
Athena Brown, daughter of Abigail Brown, and 
has had six children by her. Some years ago he 


THE WIN TRIBE 31 


moved away from the Win area and more recently 
has gone into the western part of Virginia, place 
unknown. His wife, Athena, practically white 
in color and with pink cheeks, died of pneumonia 
in 1918, and since then, one son has gone to Georgia, 
two are in Lynchburg, Va., and the others are with 
the father. Hence the family is now scattered. 
Nothing is known of the traits of these children 
other than that one girl was a prostitute. Alva 
has recently been “ living” with a colored woman. 

Amelia, herself, is reported to have had very 
good sense, though uneducated, and was a 
wonderful mother with her children. This ability 
has shown up in two of her children, Amanda and 
El, more so in the former than the latter. 
Amanda, who married Uriah Black, and El, now 
the wife of Charlie Jones, will be described in 
detail with their consorts. Amelia died in 
1903. | 

Alphonse was the next child of Bill B. Brown 
and was a brother of Amelia, just described. 
He was a typical Indian in physical traits and 
always worked hard as a renter, later acquiring a 
little land; “never amounted to anything and 
was no ’count.’”’ He was very ignorant and not 
bright intellectually but was a man of good char- 


32 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


acter and stood well for a Win. He married — 
Belle Jones, a typical Indian, an industrious 
woman of good character but little intelligence 
and enough schooling to barely read and write. 
Alphonse in his later years was very childish in his 
reactions and behavior. He was born in 1849, 
married in 1888 and died October 29, 1922, of 
arterio-sclerosis. He lived all his life on Coon 











RUTH 


ALPHA B WINNIE | ANTONIO BERTHA DEAN E fF G H I J 
HILL JONES. 


CHART 6. THE ALPHONSE BROWN FAMILY 


Mountain and there his ten children were born. 
Alpha, the first son, born 1890, a copper colored 
Win, uneducated, has worked as a farm laborer 
and more recently, since his cohabitation with 
Ruth Brown the past year, has been a tenant 
farmer. Ruth is the illegitimate daughter of 
Lina Hill and is white in complexion, mentally a 
moron, disagreeable and suspicious. “B,”’ born 
1892, brother of Alpha, has huge coarse features, 


THE WIN TRIBE 33 


a yellow copper tinted skin, is alcoholic, “a brow- 
beater” and has threatened to shoot and kill. 
He has served time in jail for misdemeanors. 
He is not bright mentally and ‘“‘has not much 
sense.”? Antonio, his brother, born 1893, with 
“vellow” hair and copper skin, never attended 
school and can neither read nor write. He is 
industrious, a good farmer and reliable and has 
remained on the same rented farm now for several 
years. It is a general rule among the Wins to 
become dissatisfied and to move from one place 
to another during the winter and thus get a new 
landlord for the coming year’s crop. A few, more 
industrious and ambitious, remain on one place 
sometimes for many years, and so get ahead a little 
more than those who move each year. Land- 
lords are anxious to keep those who are industrious 
and a stay of more than one year on a rented place 
is generally an index of ability and enterprise and 
energy more than the average. Antonio married 
Winnie Jones, daughter of Bruno, born 1896. 
She attended school from the age of seven until 
fourteen and although she applied herself, never 
progressed beyond the third grade and never 
learned to read and write. She has a meek dis- 
position but is rather quick physically and a 


34 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


hard worker. One of her children, the older, 
born 1919, is named after a patent medicine but 
the mother can never spell his name unless she 
looks at the bottle. She has one other child born 
1921. Dean and “E,” born 1896, were twins 
and the next children of Alphonse and Belle. 
The former is ‘‘just an average Win—not a very 
steady fellow and not of much account.” He 
married Bertha Jones, one of the illegitimate 
children of Bertie Jones, practically white in color, 
but has no children yet. Dean and his wife are 
tenants on the C place. ‘‘E” has straight black 
hair, a copper-color skin, and there is “nothing 
against him.” ‘“‘F,”’ born 1898, did not start in 
school until the age of fourteen, and was slow to 
learn. He is now a hard worker as a tenant 
farmer and lives at home with his mother whom 
he supports. He is known as honest, a character- 
ization given to but few of the Wins, and is well 
respected. He is the secretary and treasurer of 
the Mission chapel. ‘‘H,” the next known child 
of Alphonse “did not have good sense”’ in school, 
and was continually in a fight with the other 
children. She has deformed feet. She is a fit 
case for institutional care. She lives with her 
mother. ‘“‘J,’”’ born 1903, the next boy, is very 


THE WIN TRIBE 3 


honest and truthful and also a worker, though, 
like his brother ‘‘F,” very slow in school work. 
“J,” born 1907, the last in this fraternity, is 
almost a defective mentally like his sister ‘“‘H’’. 
He could learn nothing in school. 

Allen Brown, born 1850, was brother of Al- 
phonse, and a dark colored man with long straight 
black hair, a typical Indian. He is very ignorant 


ALTA SAM 

BROWN LONG 
BURTON ADDIE HORICR wusa CCS ABEL | BEATRICE AVERY | BESSIE @ LOR grow | BERYL 
JONES. BLACK JONES JONES BLACK. 


WEBSTER- OSTALD 

me, OOO OO nO HO 
JONES 

FACLY, 


c D «OE a 


CHaAart 7. THe ALTA-SAM LONG FAMILY 


and troublesome, a fighter and a thief. He was 
very licentious and known to have been the father 
of at least one illegitimate child by a Win. He 
was continually fighting, and finally was driven 
from the county. His wife was a black negro 
with kinky hair. Both Allen and his wife asso- 
ciated with negroes as did their five children. One 
daughter married a negro, born a slave. This 
whole family group has left the county and though 
“near Lynchburg,’ has not been found or seen. 


36 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Alta Brown, born 1851, was a sister of Allen. 
She had straight hair and was fairly dark in color. 
Mentally, she was “rather poor.’? She married 
Sam Long, born 1852, a white man, brought up 
in a free negro family, who was industrious and 
of a good character, but ignorant. His brother 
lives in Ad County, Virginia, now. He has 
acquired some property and is very well thought 
of. Sam lived with Alta on part of a large estate 
and was always a tenant farmer, never acquiring 
any property, and always poor. He died about 
1900, his wife dying a few years later. They had 
nine children, four of whom died of tuberculosis. 
Addie, the eldest, born 1871, according to her 
marriage record, but probably in 1874, after the 
marriage of her parents, had only a few days’ 
schooling and never learned to read and write. 
She is so dull in academic matters that she cannot 
even make change in money in a store. She 
married at eighteen, and since then has always 
worked on the farm as well as in the home which 
she maintains at a very low standard. She 
married Burton Jones, son of Bob, a tenant farmer 
who has never been successful and the family has 
always been poor. ‘They live at present in a two- 
room shack on the D place near the Mission, 


THE WIN TRIBE 37 


raising tobacco on shares. Addie herself has a 
slight copper-color complexion, much the same 
appearance as a person tanned by the sun, with 
soft medium brown hair, and somewhat protrud- 
ing lips. She has no traits of the Indian. Four 
of her nine children have died, three of tubercu- 
losis near the adolescent age, and one younger. 
These children are described under the father. 
All of these are of very poor mentality, even for 
Wins. 

Achsa, the second child of Sam and Alta, born 
1876, was a hard-working woman of rather good 
traits and of more ability than her sister. She 
became pregnant by Horace Jones, married him 
the same year, 1898, had another child, and died 
about 1900 of tuberculosis; worn out by the disease 
and the hard work forced upon her by her husband. 
“C,” the third child of Sam, died of tuberculosis 
when young. “D,”’ born 1882, was a boy of 
very fair mental and physical ability and rather 
excellent traits. He, too, died of tuberculosis, in 
1905. 

Abel, born 1884, brother of “‘D,” light in skin 
and hair color, is mentally below average for a 
Win, uneducated, never having attended school. 
He is an inefficient farm laborer. When young 


38 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


he was considered a “rather nice boy,” but since 
his marriage to Beatrice Black in 1911, has never 
amounted to anything, although a hard worker. 
He and his wife never come to the Mission. They 
have five children, the oldest, “A,” born 1912, 
and “B,” born 1914, both with light skin color, 
are of fair school ability. ‘The other children are 
small. Abel now lives on the N Fruit Farms. 
Avery, brother of Abel, born 1885, with dark 
brown hair and dark copper skin, has never 
attended school and can neither read nor write. 
He has, however, a very fair range of information. 
He has been a thief at times and never very 
industrious. When sick once he was assisted by 
the students of a nearby college with milk and 
food, and upon becoming well demanded it as his 
right. He has been a laborer and tenant farmer, 
but always very poor and maintained a very low 
standard of living. His wife Bessie Jones, daugh- 
ter of Hugo, a cousin, with black hair, dark brown 
eyes but light skin, of very poor mentality, is 
unindustrious, shiftless, and permits her home to 
become so littered that one can scarcely walk 
across the floor on account of the filth. He and 
his wife have never had any contact with the 
Mission though at one time they lived across the 


THE WIN. TRIBE , 39 


road from it. This couple have six children. 
The oldest, “A,” born 1911, with light hair and 
light skin color, has had little schooling but has 
learned to read and write, and does very well 
for the little opportunity she has had. She is 
capable and quick in her physical reactions, 
and better in many ways than most of the group. 
She is now hired out at housework to a neighbor. 
“B,” born 1913, her sister, is not as capable or 
bright as her sister ‘“‘A” and is much below the 
average Win child. She fights with the other 
children at school. Her father will not permit 
the removal of her tonsils which are badly dis- 
eased. ‘‘B” and her younger sibs all have dark 
hair and dark skin. 

“G,” the next child of Sam Long, died of tuber- 
culosis when young, and Agnes, her sister, born 
1890, with dark, slightly kinky hair, brown eyes, 
skin light but spotted like a mulatto, had no 
schooling and cannot read nor write. She is 
quick in her actions, but mentally dull. She 
married Lon Jones, an inefficient, shiftless tenant 
farmer, of poor mentality, and the two have a 
very low income and maintain a very poor home. 
They have seven children, three of whom attend 
school, and have never been able to go beyond 


40 MONGREL * VIRGINIANS 


the third grade. A next younger child is con- 
sidered an imbecile. Agnes buys-many things 
at the mission sales of clothing and the like, but 
otherwise has no contact with it. The children 
are all light in color and have hair lighter than the 
parents. 

Alton Long, the last in the group, born 1892, 
never attended school. He is a poor worker, 
gets into debt and will not pay his way if it is 
possible to get out of it. During the World War 
he did nothing, and finally was taken directly 
into the army service. He has been intoxicated 
several times. He married Beryl Black, a prosti- 
tute, and has one child by her, born 1923. 

The next five children of Bill and Susie Brown, 
returning to the earlier generation, are unknown 
as to traits. Three of them, women, are found 
elsewhere with their consorts. 

Hemid, born 1862, another child of Bill, has 
gone away from this region. Rupert, the next 
son, born 1863, hair straight, color black, now 
grey with brown eyes and light copper skin, 
never went to school and never learned to read 
and write. He is rather quick though, in his gen- 
eral reactions, and has acquired much knowledge 
without reading. He has always worked hard, 


THE WIN TRIBE 41 


been honest and paid his debts, and is well con- 
sidered by the white folks of the neighborhood. 
He has a good deal of pride and wishes to appear 
white. He and his family have mixed little with 
the others and he has tried to maintain a strict 
moral code. Temperamentally he is quiet in 
manner, retiring, and not particularly com- 
municative. He took an active interest in the 
Mission at its beginning, but more recently has 





Cuart 8. THE RUPERT BROWN FAMILY 


attended but seldom, and now takes no active 
part in the work. He has understood and com- 
prehended matters in general much better than 
any of the other Wins. He has never been 
strong physically, and has never acquired property 
or saved money, but has always made a good living 
for himself and his family. He married first, 
in 1884, Adelaide Jones, born 1865, daughter of 


42 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Bob and Salva, but she died a few years later 
and two children which she had died young. 
Rupert then married Miranda Hillin 1888. Miura, 
as she is known, born 1869, was the daughter of 
George Hill and Grace, the latter being a waif, 
who was brought up by Hal Jones. She had 
red hair, blue eyes and a fair skin. She was well 
trained as a child and maintained a neat home 
and cared well for her children. She did not have 
much intelligence, being a “‘repeater” in conver- 
sation, never contributing anything. She was 
very honest. As a white woman she associated 
little with the Wins. She had “slow tuberculosis” 
for many years, but could not be trained in the 
care of herself and’so transmitted it to her daugh- 
ter-in-law, Inez, who later died from it. Her own 
daughter, Nora, also has it, formerly active, but 
now in an inactive state. Miura died April 11, 
1923, of Bright’s disease. It is interesting to note 
that the physician’s record here shows “Indian” 
as color and race. Rupert and Mira had four 
children one dying in infancy. The oldest, Nora, 
born 1890, has hair of medium brown color, 
straight, with dark brown eyes, but with a light 
skin color. She attended school until she reached 
the fifth grade where she stopped. She has a 


THE WIN TRIBE 43 


good education for a Win, and her range of infor- 
mation is very fair. She is a hard worker and 
maintains a neat, clean home, which is well fur- 
nished. She has always borne herself well and 
been chaste. Soon after her marriage she became 
bed-ridden because of tuberculosis but more 
recently it has become inactive. She does not 
come to the Mission or send her children to the 
school, it being five miles away; but she does buy 
clothes there, and asks the Mission helpers to 
come whenever any of her children are sick. 
She married Lloyd Jones, son of Gus, and a 
distant cousin, and has six children, all as light or 
lighter in color than Nora and with soft, medium 
brown hair. Only one child, the oldest, has 
attended school and that for a short time only. 
Nora now lives with her family in Rock Hollow. 
Her brother Mick, born 1892, with brown curly 
hair, brown eyes and light skin, tall and fat, 
attended school several years, learned to read and 
write, and acquired a good fund of information. 
He is rather quick in his reactions physically, but 
mentally somewhat inert, very easy-going like 
his mother. He is much like his father in being 
upright and rather proud. During the past 
winter, 1923-1924, he has been sick with inflam- 


44 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


matory rheumatism. He never goes to the 
Mission, and will not let his children be baptised 
but is willing to ask help of them when he is sick. 
He is a tenant farmer. His first wife was Inez 
Brown, born 1890, daughter of Leander, a good 
girl who did fair work in school, though not bright 
intellectually. She died in 1920 of tuberculosis, 
the infection apparently acquired from her mother- 
in-law. She left two small children, one “A,” 
born 1915, doing very fair in school. Selma 
James, daughter of Ham and Liz James, a white 
family, but socially and intellectually of low 
grade, came to Mick’s home to work while Inez 
was sick and after her death remained on at the 
house. Mick married her in 1921, after having 
associated with her improperly previous to his 
wife’s death and after. He has one child by 
Selma. She, of white stock, is dirty, shiftless 
and careless, one of the “Dirty James.” Intel- 
lectually, she is about the average with the other 
Wins. 

Shy is the last of the children of Rupert. 
He is ‘‘whiter” than any of the others. He did 
poor work in school and tried hard to learn but 
was slow and dull mentally. He isa good worker, 
however, and has been employed as a tenant 


THE WIN TRIBE 45 


farmer and also in the railroad shops at Clifton 
Forge, and, more recently, on a fruit farm in Buck 
Hollow, Ab County. He is considered defective 
mentally. His wife is Leah Jones, daughter of 
Bruno, and they have four small children. 

The other two children of Bill and Susie were 
Leola, born 1864, and Adolph, born 1865. The 
former is in Texas with her husband; the latter is 
unknown. 

This ends the family of Bill Brown as charted. 
It originally was an Indian-white mixture and in 
some matings later added negro. The physical 
characteristics in the group vary. Several still 
have Indian physical traits; the greater number 
show the mixed physical condition of the Indian- 
negro-white, the light skin, and hair color and in 
some the curly hair. The families of Amanda, 
Alphonse and of Rupert show a much higher social 
reaction than any of the others. 

Bill, the husband of Susie, had a brother, Al, 
born 1803, a typical Indian in every respect, 
who lived on the land which he acquired from his 
father. He died in 1863. Nothing is known of 
his personal traits. His wife, Elza Lane, an In- 
dian, the daughter of John Lane and Sarah 
William Louise Abner, both Indians, was born in 
1806, apparently one year before her father and 


ATINV, NMOUG VZTY-TY FHL °6 LUV) 


Vov-"1VH 
Vav-1VH <3 
aig 
“NmOUd saxor gmor 
CmIaite 3 a@ @INNy | Miva 


AIDWE 
$sou 


; IUVHO Naanad 
witha ov SV TTY TL 
wip ms 
“yngua ganor 1H Nmowa TIVE Lapa 
Lue? |CMINIA voy |uaHLGE Ig 


*gsou 
a MOINWag | WANGV | VE VIUVA| NVOV | VITIRY ZIG VA xe 


*Naoud 
vz | Vv 
er 
astmnot 
WV ITI NYT 
HYEVS aHor 


46 


THE WIN TRIBE 47 


mother were married, although the date, 1806, 
has not been completely verified. Elza had sev- 
eral bastard children before she married Al Brown, 
and it is supposed that Austin Brown, Elza’s last 
child, was illegitimate. At any rate Austin 
himself states that his own father was a negro 
and a slave made free by his master and given some 
land which he later lost. The presence of negro 


NFRA | OSWALD Huuo HULDA JOSEPH} LISLE KEFORD HETTY SIMON | IZETTA 
3 LANE HALL BROWN BROWN. 


A B CAL c JACOB | JOSIE 
WILLIAS JONES 


CuHart 10. THe REUBEN Ross FAMILY 


traits in some of Austin’s children aids in this. 
Elza was regarded as a typical Indian in every 
respect. She died in 1890. Her oldest legitimate 
child was Mamie Brown, born about 1835, an 
Indian, who married Reuben Ross, a white man, 
in 1856. She had many children all of whom were 
probably illegitimate. She was ignorant and un- 


48 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


educated. Although regarded as promiscuous, 
she lived with Reuben practically all her life and he 
made a poor living as a tenant farmer. Four of 
her earlier children apparently died in infancy. 
Nera, one of the earlier ones, is found again in the 
story here as the wife of Oswald Jones. Then 
comes Hulda, born 1865, uneducated and ignor- 
ant, married to Hugo Jones, son of Bob, and with 
two children, one dark and typically an Indian, 
the other with black hair but lighter in skin color. 
Lisle was the next child of Mamie. She, too, 
was probably illegitimate and physically shows 
both colored and Indian blood. She has always 
been immoral and has associated with the worst 
characters of the region. She has always kept 
not only a filthy house but many vicious characters 
have made it their headquarters. She married 
Joseph Lane, a son of Warren Lane, the illegiti- 
mate son of Elza, who married Al. It is doubtful 
if the paternity of Lisle’s children is known. 
They all have the appearance of regular negroes, 
but, with the exception of “C’’, do not have kinky 
hair. The oldest boy, “A,’’ born 1884, is of poor 
intelligence, a laborer, unmarried. A daughter 
“B,”’ born 1888, married a Cal Williams of Ad 
County, Virginia; probably from a mixed area 


THE WIN TRIBE 49 


in that county, and lives near the county seat on 
a farm as a tenant and has several children, all 
small. The last child of Lisle is ‘‘C’’ Lane, born 
1890, a fine looking mulatto, honest and reliable, 
but with little education. He works as delivery 
man for a crossroads store, not far from the Win 
region, and is spoken of very highly by his em- 
ployers. In 1916 he was arrested for breaking 
and entering a store with Vergil Jones, and fined. 
This seems to have been his only offense. Lisle 
left her first husband and married again in 1905, 
Keford Hall, a mulatto, a nephew of Andrew Hall, 
who has figured quite extensively in the Win 
country. Lisle has never stood well in the com- 
munity and has never had any contact with the 
Mission. She attends all funerals, visits all the 
sick and generally is found where anything is 
going on. 

Simon Brown was a brother of Lisle. He was 
married twice, both times, his cousins, and lived 
on the Skunk Mountain. He had two children 
and died in 1914. Other than this nothing is 
known of him. 

Adam, born 1837, was a brother of Mamie and 
son of Al and Elza. Physically he had black 
corkscrew curls and was medium dark in skin 


50 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


color. He was uneducated and not particularly 
bright mentally. He was a tenant farmer, never 
having acquired any property. His first marriage 
was with Amelia Brown, already mentioned, and, 
even after separating from her, he evidently asso- 
ciated with her for a time as Alfred Brown is also 
reputed to be his child. He then married in 1879, 
Maria Hall, a sister of Andrew, of low social 
behavior and poor mentality, and had by her one 
son, Union Brown, born 1879, this marriage 
taking place because of the pregnancy of Maria. 
Maria left Adam after a time to live with his 
son Alexander with whom she is now. Union 
Brown is rather industrious as a tenant farmer, 
but ignorant and uneducated. He married Gretel 
Johnson, white, ignorant and licentious, in 1899, 
but left her after a while and is now with a white 
woman, a low grade prostitute. Adam died 
some years ago. 

His next brother was Abner, or ‘‘Ab” as he 
was sometimes called, born 1838. He was a typi- 
cal Indian, physically and heavy set. He was of 
large stature and recalled as the largest of them all 
physically. He had a good business sense for a 
Win, better than any of the others and was a 
good man with a very pleasant disposition. He 


THE WIN TRIBE 51 


married Etta Brown, daughter of Aba, for her 
first husband, and had one child, Henrietta, born 
1860. She later left him and he married Bernice 
Hall, a widow, and had five children by her, now 
unknown. Abner died about 1900. Henrietta 
married Hiram Jones, son of Walt, and had two 
children. She died many years ago. Both of 
these children are of low grade mentality. 















REX ABETA VALFNTINE HAN- BARIS 


GILBERT RILEY mt 
JOHNSON BLACK NIBAL 





LFOLA 
BROWN 






SILAS 





ULYSSES [HELENA VERA| LEVAN ICHABOD JENNIE ON} ZIDA 
JONES BROWN JONES 


CuHarT 11. Tue Asa-EstoHer FAMILY 


Abner’s brother “D,” born 1839, who married 
Elsie Jones, is known only as a name with no 
descendants. Asa, his brother, born 1839 also, 
with light color skin, but not a copper tint, and 
with black hair, was made to work at Petersburg, 
Virginia, during the Civil War and during this 
time claims to have been very much ill-treated by 


LWA MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


being beaten often. As a result of this he never 
forgave anyone—an Indian trait—and held many 
grudges all his life. He was always a hard worker 
and owned some land which he farmed. He was 
a good man and honest, although not very intelli- 
gent, and with no education. He married Esther 
Jones, born 1843, a cousin, the daughter of Hal 
Jones. Asa died May 20, 1913, no cause being 
given in the death record. This couple had nine 
children known, two of whom died young. Gil- 
bert, born 1860, was the first, and is recalled as a 
good, sterling man, one to be relied upon. He 
married a cousin, Leola Brown, daughter of Bill 
B., but no children were born. Gilbert died many 
years ago. His brother, Riley, yellow in color, 
a good worker, left the county and went to Texas. 
Izetta, the next, born November 1, 1865, mar- 
ried first Roland Ross by whom she had four 
children. She then married Simon Brown for his 
second wife and had two more children. Sheis 
still living. Helena, her first child, born 1885, 
had some schooling and was married at seventeen 
to Ulysses Jones, the son of Gus. She has had 
many children and since the death of her husband 
two years ago has kept the family going and still 
maintains a very fair standard of living. She is 


THE WIN TRIBE 53 


industrious and honest herself and wishes her 
children to be likewise. She lives in Buck Hollow. 
Her brother, Levan, born 1892, is an intelligent, 
educated Win who has had charge of the gardens 
on a large estate for the past ten years. He is 
honest, reliable, and unquestionably the superior 
of any in the whole Win group. He married Vera 
Brown, the daughter of Leander, a negro-white 
mixture with light, straight hair. Vera did very 
fair work in school, was always well behaved, and 
much more capable than the others. This pair 
has five children. ‘The oldest attends the Mission 
school because, having medium dark skin and the 
slightest touch of a hair curl, cannot attend the 
white school, and he will not go to a negro school. 
He is doing good work at the age of twelve in the 
fifth grade, except in numbers, in which he is slow. 
He is industrious and is well-behaved. The 
other children are small. Ichabod Ross, a brother 
of Levan, has much the appearance of a “‘darkey 
with thick lips,” and is generally repulsive looking. 
He is industrious, a bully, and disliked by many. 
He was in the army during the World War. He 
married Jennie Jones, a daughter of Imogen, a 
prostitute. She had a bastard child before 
marriage but has had none by Ichabod. 


S08 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Oneida, the last of this fraternity, born 
1896, light in color, has little education, and 
has been a prostitute for some years. She has 
had two illegitimate children, one by Lloyd 
Jones, now with its father and “B,” “of mixed 
blood,” who died in 1914, soon after birth from 
what was supposed to be mumps. She is “no 
good.” 

Mildred, the next known child of Asa and 
Esther, born December 12, 1870, uneducated, of 
poor mentality, has led a hard life as the wife of 
Rex Johnson who has put the whole burden of the 
support of the family on her. She maintains a 
low standard of living and is a poor housekeeper, 
but does her best. So far as known her reputation 
is good. She has several children all more or less 
stupid mentally. Anita, born 1872, her sister, 
next in the line, with dark brown curly hair but 
light skin, short and fat, had some schooling and 
can read and write, but is only of fair mentality. 
She has no children by her husband, Valentine 
Black. 

Hannibal, born 1877, the next child of Asa, a 
tenant farmer and horse-trader, is of very fair 
ability and industrious. He was arrested and 
convicted of common assult in 1914, and served 


THE WIN TRIBE 55 


a year in jail. He married “A,” a white woman 
with flaxen hair. They have no children but 
have adopted the two youngest children of Adel- 
bert Brown and are now living in the “free love 
colony” of the Wins. Areta, born 1875, is the 
last child of this fraternity of Asa which grew up. 
She has grey hair, curly, with dark eyes and a 
light copper skin. She has no schooling, can 
neither read nor write, and is mentally dull. 
She has always been more or less shiftless and with 
little idea of the fitness of things, but she and her 
husband have always paid their debts. Areta 
has taken good care of her children. Her first 
two children, Silas, born 1891, and Robin, born 
1894, were both illegitimate and were by Earle 
Booker, a white man of rough character, formerly 
a resident of the region, but now in the west. 
A few years later Areta married Sandy Brown, son 
of Austin, by whom she has had seven other 
children. She is now living with Sandy on the 
place she acquired from her father. Sandy is a 
hard-working man of poor intelligence, but 
honest. Silas, the older illegitimate child, dark 
curly brown hair, green eyes, light skin, attended 
school five months and learned to write. He was 
in the Navy for two years during the war and saw 


56 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


much service on board ship. Since then he has 
worked with Levan and on his own farm which was 
given to him by his father. He is considered of 
good intelligence, equal to that of Levan, and his 
character and reputation have always been good. 
Robin, his brother, did very fair work in school 
and later was capable and efficient as a car- 
penter. He is now a farmer on his own land 
given him by his father. He has always been 
licentious, even after marriage, and would not 
join the church Mission as he did not wish to give 
up his habits. He has little to do with the other 
Wins and he and his wife never come to the sales 
at the Mission. Robin married Maxine, daughter 
of Imogen Jones, and has three small children. 
Areta’s other children by Sandy are all mentally 
slow and have done poorly in school. ‘They are 
all with the mother. The second oldest, at the 
age of nineteen, has already had an illegitimate 
child. 

Lambert, or ‘‘Bert,” was the next son of Al and 
Elza. He was a typical Indian, a renter, and 
amounted to nothing. His wife was Winifred, a 
daughter of Bill B. Brown and they had three 
children: Annie, born 1889, a feeble-minded wo- 
man who married Paul Jones, and lives at the 


ATINV, VNNVXOY-NILSAY GH], ‘Z] LavHD 


a v 4 KA a 9 ra Y 
Sait ¥, one 


NAOUE WAT 
NZZ ULISHATAS VSSTTAR vigwy | xcnvs 


TAQVH | LHATTICY H Ly) 


“NKOvE NAOUE 
YNNVXOU 


NILSIY¥: 





of 


58 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


top of the Mountain at Buck Hollow, very poor; 
“B,” unknown, and “C,” who married Winfield 
Brown, and died of tuberculosis at the age of 
twenty-four. 

Austin was the last child in this fraternity and 
was born in 1845. He himself states that he was 
the son of Elza Lane, the Indian, and a free issue 
negro who owned land given him by his master 
but later sold it for practically nothing. This 
would make him a half-brother to these others 
with the same Indian ancestry on the mother’s 
side, and negro, probably full-blood, on the 
father’s. His hair color is grey-black, straight, 
eyes hazel, skin medium dark without any 
copper tint. As stated earlier, his statement here 
is questioned. He has never attended school 
and has never learned to read and write and his 
range of information is limited to his own im- 
mediate experience which has been very meagre. 
His reactions as a man of eighty are very slow. 
He has been a tenant farmer all of his life and 
raised many children, and has always been very 
poor and never amounted to anything. He has 
never been known to tell the truth and has been 
called the “‘unofficial press agent for all the les 
in the community,” “an old reprobate” and like 


THE WIN TRIBE 59 


terms. ‘Ten years ago he was partially paralyzed 
and now is deaf and blind in one eye. He has 
lived for some years in Buck Hollow. He lived 
with Roxanna Brown, daughter of Aba, later 
marrying her in 1879, after many of their children 
were born. She was a typical Indian, of no edu- 
cation, but chaste as far as is known. There were 
fourteen children. The oldest, “A,” born 1865, 









A ATHENA] ALYA HE/PSy| Ez JES [SIE | FRANKLIN z 


MAUD MARRY SU BAN JULIUS. 
JONES BROWN, og te 


CHART 13. Apicart’s FAMILY 


married and went away about 1890 to Af County, 
Virginia. Further than that nothing is known of 
him. The next, Leroy, born 1866, was distinctly 
negro in his make-up: as to hair form, kinky; 
and skin color, dark. His first wife was unknown, 
his second, Josephine, daughter of Leander. He 
took her to Tennessee with him, later going to 
Oklahoma where he is now. The next. SOn ya 
born 1867, married a Hill.in 1888, and has also 


60 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


gone away from the Win area. Abigail, the 
next child of Austin, born 1868, has dark, now 
grey, curly hair, brown eyes, light skin, but with 
hands as dark as a negro’s. She never attended 
school and never learned to read and write. 
She has acquired some information and has a good 
memory. She is a hard worker, rather capable, 
and for a number of years has been one of the three 
midwives in the Win region. She has never 
married but wears two huge brass wedding rings. 
She had eight children, all illegitimate. Now 
that her children have all reached maturity, she 
has “adopted” the following children and is 
taking care of them: “B,”’ a bastard child of her 
daughter Hepsy; “A,” the bastard daughter of 
her daughter Susan; and “B,” the young child of 
her brother Adelbert. Some of her children have 
distinct Indian characteristics which is interesting 
in view of the fact that, although illegitimate, 
the father of each child is known by name, and 
is one of two white men in the Win region. She 
lives now in Buck Hollow and her two youngest 
children, Susan and Julius, and the adopted 
children are with her. ‘‘A,” the oldest child of 
Abigail, by “X,’’ white, very deaf, has moved 
away to Ad County, Virginia, where he is a tenant 


THE WIN TRIBE 61 


farmer. ‘“X,” the father, was a bachelor who 
lived alone but admitted that he was the father 
of several “huckleberry children.”” He was per- 
fectly honest, a good business man, a heavy 
drinker, a fighter. Athena, the next child, born 
1890, practically white and with pink cheeks, 
learned to read and write fairly well and was 
quite capable and talked intelligently,—the most 
capable of her sibs. She was always clean, a 
superior child for a Win. She married and had 
several children already noted under her husband, 
Alva Brown. She died in 1918 of the influenza. 
The next child of Abigail’s was by “‘Y,” a farmer 
with property, a heavy drinker, uneducated, 
married and with eight legitimate children. He is 
now dead. This child, Hepsy, born 1894, has 
dark brown curly hair, brown eyes, light skin, 
mottled over the cheek bones, is uneducated and 
unable to read and write, and of only fair mental 
ability. When young she was a “promising girl” 
and received good training as a housemaid. She 
became a prostitute when in her youth, and at 
the age of eighteen had her first illegitimate child, 
“A,” born 1912. Six years later, still a prostitute, 
she had another illegitimate child, “‘B,” an imbe- 
cile. Soon after this she cohabited with Ez 


G2 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Jones, son of Willett, later marrying him a year 
after their first child was born. Since then she 
has had another child by Ez, born 1922. Re- 
cently she has been promiscuous again, although 
still living with Ez. She is a rather attractive, 
quiet-mannered woman who keeps a neat home 
and her children clean. It is said, however, that 
she has an ugly temper which she uses occasion- 
ally, especially toward her mother. Jessie, her 
sister, born 1896, was by ‘“‘Y” and is therefore a 
full sister to Hepsy. She has straight black hair, 
brown eyes and light skin color. She attended 
school at the Mission for about three years, 
reached the third grade and learned to read and 
write. This, however, seemed to be the limit of 
her academic training potentiality. She was 
well-trained in housework, and since her marriage, 
has kept a fairly clean and neat house and taken 
good care of her children. Her first child, “A,” 
a bastard, was born in 1913. Her marriage was 
forced in 1916 by her second pregnancy. Since 
then she has been reputed chaste. She has had 
six children by her husband, Franklin Brown, 
son of Leander. Her oldest child, “‘A,” born 
1913, with straight dark brown hair and light 
brown skin, at eleven is in the second grade in 


THE WIN TRIBE 63 


school doing fair work. The other children are 
like “A” in physical make-up and border more 
on the Anglo-Saxon white than the Indian. 

“EK”? Brown, born 1898, is the next illegitimate 
child of Abigail Brown and is by “X.” He is dull 
mentally and could learn little in school. He has 
a disagreeable temper and twice when angry, 
has left his crop in August. He is industrious at 
times; at others lazy. Maud, his sister, born 
1899, with dark brown curly hair, brown eyes, but 
almost white skin, attended school for four years 
and did very fair work. She is of fair mentality 
for a Win, but sullen and suspicious and reticent. 
She is afraid of her husband and joined church 
against his will. She takes fair care of her home. 
Her husband is Harry Jones, son of Oswald, by 
whom she has three small children. Next younger 
than Maud is Susan, born 1904 and the most 
attractive physically of Abigail’s children. She 
has heavy straight black hair and an olive skin. 
For several years she has been associating with 
Owen Jones, son of Ulysses, and has two illegiti- 
mate children by him, but Abigail will not allow 
her to marry him because of the “spells” which 
Susan has, although she will let Owen stay at her 
house over week-ends. Susan has some ability 


64. MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


for a Win, but has never been trained. Julius, 
born 1907, the last of Abigail’s children, reached 
only the second grade in school and is without 
energy or ambition. He has used alcohol quite 
extensively. He works as a farm hand for his 
mother. 

Abigail and her children in general show more 
energy and ability than any one group among the 
Wins. It is true that the incidence of illegitimacy 
is high among them. Negro characteristics ap- 
pear here and there and it is possible that along 
with the physical characteristics of the negro 
there came also some industriousness and ability 
from the negro strain of Austin Brown’s colored 
father, unknown, however, as to traits except 
that he was the kind of a negro to have land given 
him by the master who set him free. 

Returning again to the children of Austin: 
Hetty, the next, born 1872, was a prostitute and 
had a bastard child before her marriage to Simon 
Brown in 1895. She died soon after marriage 
and no one recalls her particularly. ‘“‘G,” the 
next child, born 1873, had negro characteristics in 
skin color and hair, married a mulatto but sepa- 
rated from him after a brawl in which the mulatto 
killed another negro who had been associating 


THE WIN TRIBE 65 


with her. This was in Ad County where “G” 
was married. Since then nothing has been known 
of “G.” “H” and Adelbert, twins, born 1876, 
were the next two children of Austin and Rox- 
anna. ‘The former died at the age of twenty-one 
of tuberculosis; the latter, a typical Indian with 
straight black hair and dark skin, learned to 
read and write in school, and then for a while 
went among the Win houses to read to them. His 
education went no further than the mere ability 
to read and write. He is a good worker, a tenant 
farmer, good in that he is capable and works 
hard, but is shiftless, borrows and never repays, 
assumes no responsibility, and is distrustful. 
He married Hazel Miller, had six children by her, 
recently left her, gave his children away to various 
relatives with no sense of the fitness of things or 
feeling the responsibility of them, and then co- 
habited for a time with Louise Hall Brown, until 
Alfred, her husband, knocked him in the head 
and drove him off. He then lived on Bull Creek 
by himself for a while but recently has returned to 
Louise and is now living with her, since Alfred 
has left his wife and family because of her be- 
havior. All of Adelbert’s children are girls. The 
oldest, “A,” born 1912, with curly black hair, 


66 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


“black eyes,” copper skin, and high cheek bones, 
is now with Charles and “El’’ Jones who have 
“adopted” her. At twelve she isin the third grade 
in school, has learned to read and write, but is 
slow and does very poor general school work. Her 
next younger sister, ‘“B,”’ born 1915, with black 
straight hair, brown eyes, but light skin, and high 
cheek bones, lives with Abigail Brown. She has 
had no schooling except the past year, and is 
very stupid mentally, a low-grade moron. Her 
sister, ‘‘C,” born 1916, is with Melissa Jones, 
her aunt, who is teaching her at home both in 
reading and writing and giving her general training 
for housework. ‘‘C’”’ has black straight hair and 
a medium dark complexion. She is rather bright 
and an attractive child fora Win. ‘The other two 
children are small and are with Hannibal and 
‘“‘A”? Brown. Hazel Miller, the mother of these 
children, of white blood, with little education 
but of fair ability, however, has been a prostitute 
since Adelbert, her husband, left her. Her chas- 
tity previous to that time, however, is questionable. 
She first went to Brunhilde Brown in the 
“Shades,” and lived with her in her “red light” 
house. More recently she has been cohabiting 
with Lem Jones. She is a bad character and has 
a very; poor reputation. 


THE WIN TRIBE 67 


Sandy Brown is the next child of Austin, born 
1879. He is very black, with a slight curl in his 
black hair. He is a good carpenter and brick- 
layer. He can figure the number of bricks neces- 
sary for a chimney. He also cuts off timber 
and has shipped as much as a carload at a time, 
hauling it to the railroad. He always pays his 
debts and is considered very honest. He is not 
very intelligent otherwise and, as many of the 
older generation, had no schooling. His house is 
always ‘‘awful.” He married Areta, with negroid 
characteristics, daughter of Asa, already de- 
scribed, and has six living children. The oldest 
girl, Rosalind, born 1902, very dark brown hair, 
curly, with black eyes and copper skin and some- 
what pinkish cheeks, attended the Mission school 
and can read and write. She was slow and dull 
in school, but a plodder. She now works out at 
washing, etc. She is not very capable and must 
always be supervised in whatever she does. She 
sews nicely, however. Her character has always 
been good. Her sister, Myra, born 1904, with 
straight black hair, dark eyes, dark skin, attended 
school and learned to read and write. She is 
much like Rosalind in ability. At the age of 
nineteen she had an illegitimate child, born in 


68 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


1923. This is a white child with blue eyes. ‘‘C,” 
Myra’s brother, born 1907, is dark like Rosalind, 
ignorant, dull and works at home with his father. 
“D,” born 1911, another brother, at thirteen is 
in the third grade in school, slow and dull, but 
rather capable at farm work. “E,” born 1913, 
is very stupid and cannot talk plainly. This 
ends the fraternity of Sandy and Areta. 

Melissa Brown, born 1881, is the next daughter 
of Austin and very negroid in physical character- 
istics. She has black curly hair, brown eyes, 
skin dark with some copper tint, a flat nose and 
thick lips. She has a bit of schooling and can 
read but just barely write. She is very talkative 
and quite a scandal-monger. Before marriage 
she was a prostitute. She laughs about the 
one child she had which died, perhaps because it 
was very black in color. She has a better and 
cleaner home than most of the Wins being more 
energetic and ambitious. She married Sylvester 
Jones in 1904. She has no living children but 
has adopted her niece “‘C” Brown and is bringing 
her up well. 

Melissa’s sister is Augusta, born 1884, with 
long black straight hair, brown eyes and copper 
skin. She never attended school but is more 


THE WIN TRIBE 69 


intelligent than her sister Melissa although she 
buys everything at the store with five cent pieces. 
She is a rough coarse woman and contemptible 
in her attitude toward the Mission folks. She 
has no moral principle and previous to her last 
mating was promiscuous. Her first marriage 
was to a Nevin (record not found), then to Ben 
Hill in 1902, divorced in 1907, then married in 
1915 to Uriah Black with whom she has been 
since that time. She has no children. The last 
in this fraternity is Althea, born 1885, with 
straight black hair, black eyes, copper skin, short 
and fat. She is mentally dull, slow in her reac- 
tions, very ignorant. She married at the age of 
thirty-two, “‘a war bride,’”’ to Leslie Jones. She 
now takes care of her aged father Austin. ‘This 
completes the description of the children of Austin. 
It will be noticed that negroid physical charac- 
teristics have reappeared in the offspring at various 
places. Intellectually the group is rather poor, 
perhaps even a little below the average for Wins. 

Another illegitimate child of Elza Lane besides 
Austin Brown was Warren Lane, born about 1833, 
previous to all her legitimate children. This 
Warren is recalled by many people as “‘a typical 
Indian with long black hair and copper skin, tall, 


70 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


high cheek bones.” He married Keturah Smith 
and had many children by her. None of these 
has been traced out as Warren and his family 
moved to Af County, Virginia, many years ago 
and have had no communication with the Win 
people since then. 

This Al Brown-Elza Lane mating of two appar- 
ently pure Indian types shows offspring some of 
whom have more or less pure Indian physical 
characteristics while others appear negroid. 
Some of the negroid traits are explained by the 
acknowledged introduction of negro blood in one 
strain, that of Austin. It is thus apparent that 
this Brown group is more of a mixed group than a 
pure type Indian. Socially it is considered next 
in the scale to the family of Bill Brown, just 
described. 

Aba, born 1805 or so, son of Bill and Dollie 
Thomas, is unknown as to traits other than that 
he was a typical Indian. His first wife, Betsey 
Hill, probably white (from the name), whom he 
married October 21, 1828, bore him seven chil- 
dren. The first was Harold, born 1829. He was 
a typical Indian, uneducated in books but indus- 
trious and made his children work in the fields. 
He married Phebe Johnson, a white woman. 


ATINV.] AGSLAG-V4Y FHI, ‘pl LUVHD 


A1Dwa 
ne] neva INH WHLsa ed 
& Ps) TIVOTEY CT¥aso V¥ Suan 
Ts qs tig ais 
NIAIN INO 4 ed se 
SINor *NAQUE oqNoe SSOu 
C) K T Teilvd] NVNVOT Tavuzr NIDOVUE [BIssae sows | cxevqg NVATI ek nS eae 


sanive 
HVT / aga 
SS) IIR 
LyvHO kiDWws VREVXOW S1DWA 
VATYS god sno EVHO KILgov VATS GOW 
qs aHL = Vv qHL HL 
*sanor a 3504 nsovg “NaOUd sanor 
3anv12 W¥sstuv1d stot wyst | visa WaNaY NILSQV | VNNVXOY © god VAS 


wy NeOuE TIIH 
v ur vay hislaa 


“HAOUE 


XOuHT | ENTHaNSOf 2 CAME CITLINIa 


aova xaOug 
MACNYET VAMININ 


ows ROSNHO? 
zavo) [¥TIuAE¥D @lowvit | ZaaHa 


72 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


As soon as his children grew up they left home 
and went west. He died many years ago. The 
next child of Aba, of whom anything is known, 
is Carvilla, who as a young girl associated with 
Gabe Sams, a black negro, who has been connected 
with others of the Wins, and had, by him, one 
son, Leander, born 1854. Carvilla seems to have 
died young as nothing else is known of her. Le- 
ander will be taken up later. Carvilla had one 
sister, Salva, a typical Indian, who married Bob 
Jones, a cousin whose children are described later; 
also a sister Roxanna who married Austin Brown, 
as already noted; Etta, another sister, a typical 
Indian, who married first Abner Brown, then later 
cohabited with Isaac Ross. Aba later cohabited 
with Idella Miller, born 1830, a white woman 
who had two illegitimate children, Lois and Clar- 
issa Miller. In view of the fact that both of these 
women are white, it is probable that Aba was not 
the father of either of them. Both married into 
the Wins and are noted with their respective con- 
sorts. To return to Leander, born 1854, of an 
Indian half-breed mother and a negro father, we 
find a man with curly black hair, now turning 
grey, brown eyes, light skin, oval contour of face 
with sharp features. He had no schooling and 


THE WIN TRIBE 73 


never learned to read and write. His information 
is limited entirely to his own experience in the 
Win area, which is necessarily very narrow. He 
is a great talker. He has always worked hard 
and is active physically and of fair ability men- 
tally, for a Win. He married first Minerva 
Brown, daughter of Bill B., a typical Indian with 
copper color, and had eight children by her, 
three of whom died in infancy. Minerva died 
about 1891 and he then cohabited with Beulah 
James. She has black, curly hair, hazel eyes, 
light weather-beaten skin and high cheek bones. 
Beulah had been previously married in 1889 to 
Adolph Brown, son of Bill. She had no schooling, 
never learned to read and write, is slow mentally 
and rather dull, but tries hard to keep her home 
neat. She is spoken of as honest and generally 
wanting to do right. That she is shrewd shows 
in the fact that some years ago she had the same 
child baptized several times in order to get more 
clothes each time from the Mission for the family 
in general. She and Leander had seven children 
at the time they had their marriage ceremony per- 
formed, this in 1908, in the presence of these seven 
children, one of the children, then aged sixteen, 
announcing the following day to a neighbor, 


74 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


“Papa and Mama got married yesterday.” Le- 
ander and Beulah have not been particularly 
interested in the Mission activities, the former 
having appeared there but once, at a Fourth of 
July celebration, while Beulah attends the sales 
and occasionally the sewing circle. Leander had 
five children by Minerva who reached maturity. 
Revo, the oldest, born 1880, dark curly hair, 
copper skin but light, facial contour round, can 
read a little having attended school a year. 
He is a hard worker, a tenant farmer, and lives 
on the Sailes place. He has poor mentality but is 
physically active. He has never married. His 
sister, Josephine, born 1882, much like him in 
color and industry, married Leroy Brown in 1904 
and the two are now in the west; place unknown. 
“Ky,” the next, is married and also “‘west.” Inez, 
next, born 1890, of medium dark color, attended 
school for a short time but was dull mentally. 
She was industrious, bore a good name and was 
spoken of as a “good sweet kind of a girl.”’ She 
married Mick Brown, son of Rupert, as mentioned, 
in 1913, and died of tuberculosis, November 20, 
1920. Vera, her sister, born 1891, has lght 
straight hair and is mixed negro-white in physical 
appearance. She is very capable, industrious and 


THE WIN TRIBE Fie 


intelligent, much better than the average Win. 
She married Levan Ross in 1912 and had several 
children as already noted. 

Gladys Brown, born 1888, is an illegitimate 
child of Beulah James and is placed here on the 
chart. Beulah was the second consort of Leander 
and this child is probably an Anderson. She is 
very defective mentally, never had any training 
and maintains a very poor standard of living. 
Her house is dirty and children unkempt. She 
married Jack Jones and has many children later 
to be described under Jack. Franklin is the 
first child of the Leander-Beulah mating, born 
illegitimate in 1892, but later legitimized by their 
marriage in 1908. He has dark brown straight 
hair, brown eyes, light skin, Anglo-Saxon facial 
contour. He attended the Mission school for five 
or six years but was very slow and dull and never 
learned to read and write more than his name. 
He is now a hard working man, a tenant farmer, 
poor, but with an industrious wife, Jessie, the 
daughter of Abigail Brown, and maintains a very 
fair home for a Win. He is a faithful attendant 
at the church. His children are described under 
Jessie, the wife. 

Franklin’s sister, Rebecca Brown, the second 


76 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


in the Leander-Beulah fraternity, born 1897, 
did very fair work in school, much better than her 
brothers. At the age of twenty-two, she married 
Izrael Jones, who soon left her giving the excuse 
that he found she was still licentious after marri- 
age. She has had two illegitimate children, both 
since her marriage, and both acknowledged to be 
by a white man who says that he is willing to 
marry her but no divorce has yet been secured. 
Rebecca is a distinct Indian type and is handsome. 
She is considered decidedly vicious. Lorman, 
her brother, born 1901, copper color, was very slow 
and dull in school though more capable than 
Franklin. He worked as a laborer until he 
married, since when he has been a tenant farmer. 
He cohabited for some time with Patri Nevin 
before marrying her in 1921. He has two children 
by her. “L,” born 1904, brother of Lorman, 
black hair, brown eyes, light copper skin, at- 
tended school but was too dull mentally to learn 
to read and write. He is physically slow and 
has the general reaction of a low grade moron. 
“M,” his twin, is much like him but reached the 
second grade in school after eight years of at- 
tendance. He can read and write a little. “‘N,” 
the next child, born 1908, of the same physical 


THE WIN TRIBE 77 


type as the twins, reached the third grade in school 
but is dull and inert mentally and physically. 
He lives at home as does his younger brother 
“OQ,” born 1909, with black hair, brown eyes and 
skin light. He did better work in school than any 
of his full brothers and is quick in his reactions. 
“P,” born 1910, the last of this fraternity, with 
curly black hair, brown eyes, skin light, at four- 
teen, is doing very poor work in school, cannot 
write his name, reads very poorly and does better 
in figures and with the multiplication tables. 
This ends the Leander-Beulah fraternity, a group 
in which poor mentality is quite the rule. 

The Aba Brown family is a mixed group with an 
Indian-white mixture first and negro entering 
later. It is intellectually and socially of low grade 
none of its members standing out even in the Win 
county. 

The next on the list of Wins is Ada, the sister of 
Aba and daughter of the first Bill Brown. She 
was born about 1810 and married in 1830 to Hal 
Jones. Her first child, born about 1830, was 
illegitimate according to local information. This 
was Walt Jones, “‘one-half black,’ married to a 
white woman, Celia Johnson, and the father of 
four known children: Hiram, Charles, Lanie and 


78 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Belle. Hiram, born 1855, “a typical Indian,” 
married Henrietta Brown and had two children; 
Pompey, reputed insane at the age of twenty-five 
for a time, later disappeared, and Paul, born 1882, 
now reputed ‘‘crazy.” Nothing is now known of 
Pompey. Paul will not work for the man on 
whose place he rents but says he would work for a 


ak onl JONES 


CELIA WALT CLARICE 808 SALVA ELSIE D CLARA ae ASA | ESTHERPAPSTINA 
JOHNSON HILL BROWN BROWN LACK B 
THE THE Ez 
BOB-SALVA ASA-ESTHEH ABRAHAM 
FAMILY. FAMILY JOHNSON 
On] 2-00 OF ra 


HENHIETTA HIRAM CHARLES EL LANIE SELLE] ALPHONSE 
BROWN BROWN BROWN 


THE 
ALPHONS & 
ROWN 


B 
aE © a. 


POMPEY PAUL ANNIE 
BROWN 


CHART 15. THe HaAt-ApDA JONES FAMILY 


Mr. Nevin. His family as a result is reported 
very poor and “starving.” His wife, Annie 
Brown, daughter of Lambert and Winifred, is a 
wanderer and never at home. They have small 
children and live in the mountains at the head of 
Buck Hollow. Hiram died in the Insane Hospital 
some years ago. 


THE WIN TRIBE 79 


Charles, brother of Hiram, born 1860, is a hard 
worker, is thrifty and has saved money and pur- 
chased the home where he now lives. He has the 
cleanest home among the Wins. He married 
“ED’ Brown, the illegitimate child of Amelia 
Brown, mentioned previously. She has black, 
curly hair, brown eyes, a copper skin with the 
features of the Caucasian. She shows no negroid 
characteristics but ‘‘has some of the looks,” the 
expression of one person. She had no education 
and can neither read nor write. Her range of in- 
formation is very limited. She has always 
worked hard and is more active physically than 
her sister Amanda. She never attends the Mis- 
sion church services but is present at the sales 
and always pays cash for whatever she buys. 
She married first Harmon Jones in 1882, but after 
his death she married Charles Jones in 1890. She 
has no children. Lanie, sister of Charles and 
Hiram, born 1858, is very ignorant and dull 
mentally. She has never married and poses as 
being very virtuous. She goes about caring for 
the sick. She always pays her debts, is “pretty 
decent sort of a soul” and no harm has been heard 
of her. When visiting she sits for hours in a house 
hardly saying a word. She makes her home 


80 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


mostly with “El.” Belle, her sister, born 1865, 
who married Alphonse Brown and has many chil- 
dren already described, has always been dull 
mentally, but is a good honest character. She is 
spoken of now as ‘‘a nice old woman.” ‘This is the 
last of the fraternity of Walt Jones, the supposedly 
bastard son of Ada. Ada Brown then married 
Hal Jones and the history of the early Thomas and 





CHART 16. THE HALF-BREED JONES LINE 


Jones will be discussed here to explain the en- 
trance of the Jones blood. Dollie Thomas, the 
wife of Bill Brown, already noted, was the daugh- 
ter of William Thomas, an Indian. He had two 
other daughters. One was named Petri, who 
married Ed Jones, an Indian, December 6, 1790. 
This couple had at least one son, named Ned, 
also an Indian, who married his first cousin 


THE WIN TRIBE 81 


“Tders,” the daughter of the other child of Wm. 
Thomas. This marriage took place about 1810. 
The children of this mating were Hal, who married 
Ada Brown, Karen, Janet, Tabitha and Belinda 
Jones. All these Jones had some Indian blood 
at least, so local folk lore has it. Otherwise their 
make-up is unknown. All of these have been 
dead many years and little is known of them. 


THE INDIAN JONES 


The oldest, Hal, who married Ada, was born 
about 1810, and he “‘came out of the mountains, 
was half white, black hair and complexion but 
without a nappy head.” It is evident from this 
statement that he was a half-breed Indian. Bill 
Brown, son of Bill, has said the Thomases were 
Indians and the statements of Clara Black with 
the one marriage record of Ed Jones and Petri 
Thomas in 1790, have furnished the information to 
fix the earlier generations of the Thomases as 
shown on the chart. The important point how- 
ever, Is that the common mother of the Browns 
was a sister of the common mother of the Jones, 
so that the same germ plasm, probably Indian, is 
found in both families. The name Jones, as 
noted earlier, is found as a white name in Ac 


82 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


County, Virginia, at about the same time it 
appears in Ab County. 

Hal Jones and Ada Brown, both carrying 
Indian blood, and probably none else other than 
white, were married about 1830 and had a number 
of children; these will now be described. 

Bob, the first, born 1835, is spoken of as “‘seven- 
eighths black but had straight hair,” this by a 
man who knew the people well. He is described 
otherwise as a ‘“‘dark blue Indian.’ He was a 
carpenter and “‘good in woodcraft and basketry.”’ 
He was a handsome man and a very capable 
fellow. He had no formal education. He owned 
some land which was given him by his father who 
had come to the country and purchased land on 
Coon Mountain very early. He was lazy and an 
hypochondriac. He married first Clarice Hill 
but evidently separated from her soon after this 
and lived with Salva Brown, a daughter of Aba. 
No record is found of this mating. Salva was an 
Indian type, copper color, uneducated and igno- 
rant, but otherwise nothing known of her traits. 
These two had fourteen children, most of whom 
reached maturity. 

Gub is the oldest child of Salva. For some 
time the investigators thought this his name 


KTINV VATVS-€OG FHI, ‘J] LavHD 


NAOUR 
ONOT 


YHITV HLOW 
Ba @ WW s-VITY 
. Gis 
ONO TIVH sanor 
JMHAV | AISGAG gnuxd MNVH | YHOO 


BOUdOOR LTEVOUVR 


sinor 
aT =RONT «TISWIA 
SOR OOOH LO OL OO OT OO TOUTMOE sce 
sno 


IDV 

NIT H NIDA NOWWMa-waLseiA THL 
HHL hg ONOT sagnor NAOUG aia 
iene grates Dad’ -gqy VI 


TWH 
avs tot ‘TEOMAA REHONIN) NITAVH, XGGKT SIS|WSd AIAYa aXrcav |Nomuna Wiicaia |] NAOORI 





NSOUd NSONG MATIN 
VoInH ‘Td NOMEVH QVssIuvig aGAvVID = g 


NaOvd TIIH 
VATYS goa @STHV1D 


84 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


but a remote record shows Gus to be correct. 
He has gone by the name Gub for so long that no 
one knows any other. Born 1855, hair grizzled 
brown, curly, eyes brown, skin copper, facial con- 
tour oval, he had no schooling and never learned 
to read and write. He has a very fair range of 
information for a Win, is active and a fairly good 
worker. He has ‘never been in trouble.” He 
does not amount to much, but even then is better 
than average among the Wins. He is one of the 
group of renters in Buck Hollow which has been 
quite stationary in its movement of population. 
He has no association with the Mission. He 
married Lois Miller, the daughter of Idella Miller 
who cohabited with Aba Brown. Lois has curly 
grey hair, formerly brown, blue eyes and very light 
skin. She is considered a white woman ‘from 
low down white trash.” She has no schooling 
and a very limited range of information and is 
slow in her reactions. She is a hard worker and 
used to spin and weave but now only knits. Her 
reputation in earlier years was that she was 
always stealing some other woman’s husband for 
the time being but now as a woman of sixty-five, 
is considered a rather quiet, shrewd person. Gub 
and Lois have many children. Christina, the 


85 


THE WIN TRIBE 


@ v 


MIAZA 
Oe : » NHOUOn 
O — LUVHO CTYKSO 
LK a NSOUG “aHL is 
WIHLSd VS Vaud HLING sso’ VNIL gaNor 
naOua WOT IG Mooud Wis ssow -v XxTIcn YTIID, ONONG SASSA10 WNETIH -SIVHD»y civaso 
VOMEMS ‘TavUZT I ‘WkeEa} SINOl = v¥ON | GOTT varano 


CHart 18. THe Gus FAMILY 


S6 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


oldest known, born 1879, married Oswald Jones, 
a cousin, at the age of fourteen. Ulysses, the 
second child, born 1880, never went to school. 
He was a quiet man, mentally slow, but always 
worked, renting part of the Lowe farm in Buck 
Hollow for over twenty years. He bore a good 
reputation but amounted to little although he 
maintained a fair standard of living in his home. 
He died in 1922. He married Helena Ross, the 
daughter of Roland Ross and Izetta Brown, a 
cousin. She was born in 1885. She talks about 
her “‘blue blood” and looks practically white. 
She had ten children, has cared for them well, 
maintained a comfortable home, had farm papers 
in the home to read and has brought up her chil- 
dren to work on the theory that “a child which 
works won’t steal.” This family, especially since 
the death of the father in 1922, has held itself 
rather aloof from the others and feels somewhat 
superior. Helena has some schooling and is 
better than average for the Wins. It will be re- 
called that she is a sister of Levan Ross. She 
has some ability at planning and has carried on the 
large family since the death of her husband. 
Owen, the oldest child, born 1903, did fair work 
when in school, with about fourth grade possibil- 


THE WIN TRIBE 87 


ity. He is not well physically and has been sick 
with both pneumonia and pleurisy and it is felt 
that he has tuberculosis. He is a good worker, 
reliable, and the main support of the family since 
his brother ‘“‘C” has joined the Navy. Owen has 
associated with Susan Brown, daughter of Abigail, 
for several years and is the father of her two 
illegitimate children. Abigail will not permit them 
to be married because of the “fits that Susan 
has.” “B,’’ born 1905, the next child of Ulysses 
and Helena, has pink cheeks, light hair, blue eyes, 
and would pass for a white woman anywhere. 
When young, she attended school and did fair work 
until she reached the third grade when she seemed 
to have reached the limit of her mental develop- 
ment. She has “fits” and several times has had 
hysterical spells in church. She married a Nevin, 
of the Win area, with white skin, and supposed 
to be an Irishman. He is a “surly, ungracious 
cuss,’ with little schooling, a “fourth grade 
possibility.”” They have two nice children, aged 
three and one. “C,” “B’s” brother, born 1906, 
has straight black hair and comparatively dark 
skin. He is good looking and gives the appear- 
ance of a white boy of Italian origin. He has 
been called the most normal boy of the Win area. 


88 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


He was never permitted to attend school much. 
He always worked hard, has a keen sense of 
humor, and is witty. He recently joined the 
Navy and likes the service. “D,” “C’s” sister, 
born 1908, did not get beyond the second grade 
although she attended for some years. Recently 
she has been promiscuous sexually, mainly through 
the associations at her married sister’s home. 
“KE,” born 1910, a brother, is much like ‘‘C,” 
bright and alert. He reached the fourth grade 
in school which, at the age of fourteen now, seems 
to be his academic limit. He has ‘‘cat’s eyes,”’ 
(coloboma), and can see better in the night time 
than during the day. No other case of this is 
known in the group. “F,” born 1913, practically 
white in color, brown hair, attends school at the 
Mission. He is doing very fair work in grade 
three and ‘‘thinks very well.” The other children 
of Helena are small. The family still lives in 
Buck Hollow. 

The second child of Gub is Bruno Jones, born 
1881, dark brown thin hair, bordering on black, 
short and soft, medium brown skin, not copper, 
ignorant, but for a Win, quite intelligent. He 
has a very fair range of information. He has 
always worked hard but recently complains of 


THE WIN TRIBE 89 


“gall stones” and the like and says “he can’t work 
much now.” His sex morals are reported bad 
and he keeps a “harem” at his home. He has 
lived for several years on the ‘“D—” place in an 
old unpainted house, quite dilapidated. His wife 
is Cilla Smith, born 1881, the daughter of Marcia 
Smith, father unknown. He cohabited with her 
several years before marrying her. She has 
straight black hair, dark eyes, skin practically 





CuHartT 19. Tue Bruno FAMILY 


white. She gives every appearance of a white 
person, but is descended on the mother’s side from 
Clement Smith of the Arep region, an Indian- 
negro-white combination which has become prac- 
tically white in color. Cilla is ignorant, unintelli- 
gent and untrained, but has always worked hard 
for her numerous children, twelve in number, and 
all probably illegitimate, the father of each being 
in doubt except Eric, whose father is known to be 


90 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Cyril Black. When young, Bruno Jones was 
“adopted’’ by Cyril and Clara Black who brought 
him up and they have continued to live with Bruno 
since his marriage to Cilla in 1900. Bruno has 
had many “‘women” at his house as visitors and 
in turn Cilla has been quite promiscuous, hence 
though nominally placed on the chart under 
Bruno, it is questioned if the paternity of any 
of the children belongs to him. 

Leah, the oldest child of Cilla, born 1895, 
while Bruno and Cilla were living together but 
before they were legally married, is a rather bright 
capable woman who did fair work in school. 
She is a light yellow in skin color, nearly white, 
with brown hair. She married Shy Brown, son 
of Rupert, already noted. Winnie, her sister, 
born 1896, with dark brown curly hair, brown 
eyes, skin light (yellow like Chinese), attended 
school from the age of seven until she was four- 
teen and only reached the third grade. She is of 
fair mentality for a Win and reads newspapers. 
She tries hard to get along. She married Antonio 
Brown and has several children already noted. 
Charlotte, born 1901, the next child of Cilla, 
hair color light, soft and straight, medium dark 
skin, started in well at school but never got beyond 


THE WIN TRIBE 91 


the third grade. She has always worked at home 
helping her mother with the latter’s numerous 
offspring. She has been immoral sexually and 
became so notorious after a time that she was 
forced to leave Buck Hollow where she then 
stayed. She was associating then with Lance 
Black; later became pregnant by him and a few 
months after that married him. They have one 
baby born in June, 1923. Crystal, sister of Char- 
lotte, born 1904, with the same physical character- 
istics as her mother, was “slow and stupid” in 
school and did not attend long. She lived at home, 
became promiscuous, and at the age of seventeen 
had an illegitimate child whose father is unknown. 
Soon after, she married Conrad Smith, from the 
Hallfamily of Wins. Neither she nor her husband 
are “any good.” Eric, her brother, born 1910, 
father known to be Cyril Black, has dark kinky 
hair, and with dark brown skin color not black. 
He has the appearance of a typical mulatto. 
At school he is in the fourth grade doing fair work 
except in arithmetic in which he is very slow. He 
works with his father on the farm during the 
summer. “F,’’ born 1911, the next child of Cilla, 
has very dark curly hair, light brown eyes, dark 
skin and oval facial contour. At thirteen she 


92 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


is in grade three in school doing average work for 
the grade. “G,” born 1914, with light red curly 
hair, dark eyes, light skin, facial contour oval, 
is in grade three at ten and does very fair work in 
school. She is so “‘white” in color that the family 
spoil her, it being a curious custom of the Wins 
to treat the lighter colored members of the family 
better and give them more privileges than they 
do to the darker ones. For instance, Lillie Black, 
noted later, a black slave, had many children of 
various shades of black by a white man. The 
darker ones were not permitted to eat at the same 
table with the lighter ones. The other children 
of Cilla are small, have medium brown hair and 
light skin. In many of these children, the skin 
becomes darker with age and a slight “kink” 
in the hair will often disappear as a child gets 
older. It will be seen from the description of the 
children of Cilla that all physical types are present 
and because of the lack of knowledge of the father 
in each case, no deductions can be made as to the 
inheritance of traits in this particular family. 
The next child of Gub and brother of Bruno was 
Job, born 1884. He has typical copper skin, dark 
hair, and married Stella Brown, of unknown par- 
entage and lives on the “F’’ farm as a laborer. 


THE WIN TRIBE 93 


He has been away from the Win area and little is 
known of him other than that he is a hard worker. 
Leslie Jones, his brother, born 1887, with black 
straight hair, grey eyes, dark skin, had some 
schooling and then worked as a tenant farmer. 
He has pretty fair ability as a Win. Just before 
entering the army during the World War he 
married Althea Brown, daughter of Austin. He 
served as orderly to a captain in the service and 
had overseas service with an excellent record as 
shown by a watch given him by his immediate 
superior. He has always borne a good reputation 
and is one of the faithful men at the church. He 
has no children and now lives in Buck Hollow. 
Lloyd is his brother, born 1891, a tall, dark 
straight-haired and dark-skinned man, with very 
little schooling, poor mentally but able to read and 
write and with a very fair range of information. 
He has always been very immoral, having had one 
illegitimate child by Oneida Ross before his 
marriage. This boy, “A,” very slow and dull 
mentally, light in complexion, is at the home 
of his father. Lloyd married Nora Brown, the 
daughter of Rupert. She has medium brown, 
straight hair with rather light skin and all her 
children are like her physically, the younger ones 


94 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


being much lighter in color. The older child 
“B” has attended school a bit; the others none. 
They too live in Buck Hollow, about four miles 
from the schoolhouse. Louis, born 1894, was 
the next child of Gub. He was “rather black,” 
had little schooling, became a tenant farmer in 
Buck Hollow and married Beryl Black in 1914. 
He has always worked hard. He died in 1919 of 
pneumonia leaving two small children. His wife, 
Beryl, has since become a prostitute and has 
remarried. “T,’’ the next child of Gub, died young 
of tuberculosis. Izrael, born 1898, the next 
child, had little schooling and has been very 
industrious. He married Rebecca Brown but left 
her soon after, and went away from the region 
and is reported to be in the army. He “does not 
amount tomuch.” ‘The other two children of Gub 
noted on the chart died in infancy. 

This ends the description of the children of Gub, 
the oldest child of Bob Jones. The next, ‘“B,”’ 
died young. Claude, born 1858, following, is 
spoken of as a “good darkey.” He is also known 
as Claude Bellam and may possibly have been the 
father of Cilla Smith. He is shiftless, considered 
“bad and dangerous.” At one time he had a 
white wife, a colored wife and a Win wife, all living 


THE WIN TRIBE 95 


together. He had eleven children by Clarissa 
Miller, a white woman. Clarissa later died in the 
hospital for the insane. Nothing is known of the 
traits of these children, Claude having moved 
away some years ago. “D” and Harmon, the 
next two children of Bob Jones died comparatively 
young: Harmon died of tuberculosis a few years 
after marrying “El” Brown. Hugo, born 1865, 
is the next, very dark in color, both hair and skin, 
uneducated, has always been a laborer. He 
lived until recently in the Win area when he went 
into Ad County. His first wife was Hulda Brown, 
daughter of Mamie, of unknown traits, by whom 
he had Hank and Bessie. Hank, born 1890, a 
typical Indian with straight black hair, dark 
brown eyes, copper skin and high cheek bones, 
‘“‘was kicked out of the house by his step-mother 
when very young and brought himself up.” 
He has always worked hard at Nole, Ab County, 
away from the Wins for the past twelve years. 
During this time he has earned an excellent repu- 
tation there for honesty and industry. He served 
overseas in the Veterinary Corps of the United 
States Army during the World War. He married 
Cora Jones, daughter of Claude by whom he has 
two small children. His full sister, Bessie, born 


96 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


1894, with black hair color, dark brown eyes, light 
skin, went to school for many years but never 
learned to read and write. She has “‘little sense” 
and ambition and energy. She married first 
Cyrus Hall, later leaving him and then married 
Avery Long by whom she had several children. 
Hugo Jones has as his second wife, Lydia Hall, 
daughter of Andrew, married in 1896, who came 
to him with an illegitimate child Margaret, then 
one year old, the putative father of the child 
being Horace Jones. Margaret attended school 
and did fairly well: at fifteen she married a man 
aged thirty and these two have moved away. 
Woodrow, the first child of Hugo and Lydia, born 
1898, did very poor work in school and was morally 
very weak. He worked as a farm hand in Ad 
County and there married a daughter of Athena 
Brown, but these two have since separated. Lu, 
the next child, born 1899, did better than her 
brother in school but was a thief and stole a wed- 
ding ring and bracelets from the woman at whose 
house she worked at one time. She married in 
1913 at theageof fourteen and is now in Ad County. 

Adelaide, the wife of Rupert Brown, very dark 
in color, was the next child of Bob Jones and after 
her came Imogen, born 1868, a prostitute, who 


97 


THE WIN TRIBE 


KINV] NOLYAG-UaISHaM, AHT, ‘OZ LAVHO 


v a v 7 a v q Y 


ere WVHD ZITITI 
Zas IK TAVS 


HLAOL EE naoug SNT S9ON  NTAIN 190 sya 
D wmitana eoove | axslor nraoy |-XVA ZININZP COVHOT NOX cauver IaH | NOSTR 


“ONOT Sanor Sanor 
aicav KOLHAE ValSeap NEDO} RI 


08 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


had four illegitimate children before marriage, 
the father of all of these probably being Leander 
Brown. She is a typical mixed Indian type with 
dark complexion and dark hair, very defective 
mentally. She is ignorant, untrained, and, in the 
words of one of the former workers at the Mission, 
“keeps the worst house visited.”’. She has a son 
by Webster Jones born 1906, and later married 
him in 1908. Webster is rather light in color, 
ignorant, quarrelsome, high tempered, but rather 
capable. The first child of Imogen was Harriet, 
of fair intelligence, industrious, and one who has 
always tried hard to do well, although much 
abused by her husband, Mason Black. Jared, 
born 1890, the second child of Imogen, with dark 
curly hair, black eyes, dark skin, facial contour 
oval, is a good worker as a tenant farmer. He 
steals whatever he can, is of poor mentality and 
has never amounted to anything. He married 
Ton Nevin in 1911 but left her later and cohabited 
with Octavia Miller, a prostitute, practically 
white. She has had in all eight children: the 
first two probably by a white man, the mail 
carrier, both capable but with no chance for train- 
ing, nearly white in color. The first, a girl, born 
1905, is quite disreputable at the present time. 


THE WIN TRIBE 99 


The other six children of Octavia are reputed to be 
by Jared Jones. ‘‘A,” the first, born 1912, medium 
brown curly hair, brown eyes, dark skin, has 
learned to read and write in four years of schooling 
and does not appear very bright, is hard to manage 
and likes to annoy animals. “B,”’ born 1913, 
with medium brown hair and blue eyes and light 
skin, is of poor mentality and has not yet learned 
to read and write. “C,” born 1914, has light 
hair, brown eyes and light skin and as yet has had 
no schooling. The other three children are small. 

The next child of Imogen was Jennie, born 1895, 
practically white in color, with third grade school- 
ing, a prostitute before marriage with an illegiti- 
mate child at the age of twenty-three. She married 
Ichabod Ross as already noted. Maxine, born 
about 1896, the last of the illegitimate children of 
Imogen, married Robin Brown and is described 
under him. ‘‘E,” the child of Webster, is very 
defective mentally and it is said has only sense 
enough to follow a horse plowing in a furrow. 
He also chops wood well. He is a rather good 
looking boy, very Indian in type, with straight 
black hair and dark skin. 

Imogen’s brother, next in line, is Burton Jones, 
born 1870. He is very black in color, has straight 


100 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


black hair, and ‘‘very poor sense.” He was 
formerly a hard worker but some twenty years 
ago “‘was sick” and ‘“‘since then not able to do 
much.” He has always been a tenant farmer 
and for several years recently has been on the 
“D—” place. He is very poor and he and his 
wife maintain a rather poor standard of living. 
His wife Addie Long is from a defective family, 
also tubercular, and has already been noted under 
Alta Brown. The first child of this couple, who 
were married in 1892, was Jacob, born the follow- 
ing year. He has very dark skin and hair color, 
yet is registered as white in a nearby city. He is 
very feeble-minded and incapable; he runs away 
whenever he sees anyone coming. He married 
Josie Brown, daughter of Simon, also defective 
mentally, and has three small children. The 
first child of Josie was illegitimate; father un- 
known. Evelyn, the next child of Addie and 
Burton, born 1895, was not very capable 
either with her head or hands. At twenty-three, 
she had an illegitimate child which later died. 
Evelyn died the same year of tuberculosis. Her 
sister, ““C,”’ born 1896, died young also of tubercu- 
losis. ‘The next two children died very young. 
“FF” the next, born 1909, has almost black, kinky, 


THE WIN TRIBE 101 


long hair, with a light brown “spotted” skin with 
dark eyes. She has attended school for some 
years but has only been able to copy words and 
do a little modelling in clay. The next two girls 
of Addie are much like “F” except brighter in 
school. “J,” the youngest child, is quite stupid 
mentally. Physically he is like the others. 

David Jones, the next son of Bob and Salva, 
a typical Indian, dark color, straight black hair, 
a hard worker, quiet in disposition, married in 
1893, Persis Hill, who previously had two il- 
legitimate children. The Hill family, white in 
general, is not extremely capable. Persis is 
mentally weak, but very voluble, a hard worker 
but incapable of planning and managing her own 
home. She lives near her daughter Lucy who 
married Vergil Jones. These two illegitimate 
children were Lucy, with little sense, physically 
a poor type but essentially energetic, married to 
Vergil Jones, and Lina, a mentally inert prostitute 
who had one bastard Ruth, feeble-minded, and 
who is now married. David and Persis have 
always been poor. 

David’s brother Hamlin, born 1875, with 
straight black hair and dark copper skin, almost 
black, black eyes, never attended school and never 


102 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


learned to read and write. He has always worked 
hard but still has acquired only a team of horses 
andawagon. Hehas always been a tenant farmer 
and at present works for the Taylors. He has 
lived in the same two-room log cabin with his very 
large family for several years. He has always 
been interested in the Mission activities and one 
of the Mission workers has said that Hamlin 
Jones and Valentine Black were the only two 





LyYDOY HAMLIN | MINCHEN 
WALL HALL 


CHART 21. THE HAMLIN FAMILY 


in the group with any religious sense. ‘This same 
worker also said that she felt that in the last few 
years Hamlin had been sitting back and letting 
the church partially support him through giving 
clothes, etc., to the children. He is spoken of as 
“not much account to do anything” and “‘no harm 
in him.” His first wife was Lyddy Hall, a mu- 
latto Indian mixture, by whom he had one child, 
“A.” lLyddy died of tuberculosis about the year 


THE WIN TRIBE 103 


1900 and it is said on good authority that she was 
buried with ‘‘perspiration all over her face as she 
lay in the coffin.” This was noticed by many 
persons present but the funeral continued irre- 
spective of this. She was probably buried alive; 
this is the opinion of many people. Hamlin then 
married her sister, Minchen Hall, also a daughter 
of Andrew, and a mulatto. She herself, has black 
curly hair, black eyes, light copper skin and high 
cheek bones, with the appearance of a negro 
withal. This negro blood comes in on the mother’s 
side more than from the father. She had some 
schooling, claiming the seventh grade herself. 
She can read and write and has a very good 
range of information and is rather active mentally. 
Her teacher says that she did very acceptable work 
in school. It is estimated that she has a “D” 
mentality on the basis of the army mental tests. 
She is the “biggest liar in the crowd but does it 
only to be interesting” and is a trouble maker. 
She works a good bit at the Mission at washing and 
cleaning and “gets more out of it than anyone.” 
She pretends to be very religious—‘‘a pillar of the 
church’’—so states one of the former workers at 
the Mission. She has always been chaste—she 
and Sophia Black, the only ones of the older gener- 


104 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


ation now living who can claim to be chaste and 
know the paternity of their children. Hamlin’s 
children are numerous. The oldest, ‘‘A,’’ born 
1896, by the first wife, was a typical Indian in 
physical make-up; dark skin and black hair. 
He attended school at the Mission for many 
years and his school record was poor. He was 
sent to the Hampton Institute at Hampton Roads, 
Va., and there classed as an Indian. He broke 
the honor system rules at the school and spent 
most of his time in negro cabins in the town and 
finally acquired a very unsavory reputation at that 
place. Subsequently, the Indians at the school 
would have nothing to do with him. He remained 
only a short while and was then expelled. He 
then went to Washington, D. C., where he has 
been variously employed in the car barns, butcher 
shops and other like places. During the World 
War he returned to Ab County at one time with a 
white woman almost fifty years old as his bride. 
She remained but a short while and left. Two 
years later he went there with a mulatto woman 
as his second wife. It is now stated that he is 
married a third time to a white wife. Nothing is 
known of these women and so far as is known he 
has no children. Nothing further is known of his 


THE WIN TRIBE 105 


personal traits. All the other children of Hamlin 
are by Minchen, the sister of “A’s” mother. 
The first is ‘B,” born 1903, physically a typical 
Indian. He wasa plodder in school at the Mission 
but never went beyond the third grade. He went 
to Washington and is now with his brother. Little 
is known of him other than that he has served 
several terms in jail for minor offenses. His 
relatives in Ab County have sent him money at 
various times “‘to help him out”’ but he has never 
returned any of it. “C,” his sister, born 1904, 
the next child of Hamlin and Minchen, has straight 
Indian hair, copper skin, dark eyes—a typical 
Indian. She attended the Mission and reached 
the fifth grade in school but could not pass long 
division. She had special training in music but 
plays the piano with no idea of rhythm or time 
and never plays the same selection twice the same 
way. She was taken into the home of the pastor 
of a church in Ab County as a maid and did very 
acceptable domestic service but spent her evenings 
in immoral practices, a fact which would not be 
believed by the pastor until he became aware of the 
fact that she was pregnant when he forced her to 
marry the father of the child. The latter is a 
white man, aged about forty-five, an ex-soldier 


106 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


with none too savory a reputation, though of fair 
ability. ‘They are now living in Ad County where 
he is a tenant farmer. ‘They have one child born 
in 1923, practically white. 

“D,” born 1907, brother of “C,” another typical 
Indian in physical characteristics, reached the fifth 
grade in school. At fourteen, he led the dances 
in the Win cabins. Even his mother admits 
that when a boy he was immoral. He broke 
into the Mission house once with intent to steal. 
He has lost every job he has taken because of his 
thieving propensities. At present he is working 
on the rented farm of his brother-in-law. ‘“E,” 
born 1908, sister of ‘““D,” with long black straight 
wiry hair, black eyes, dark skin, Indian facial 
features, short in stature, had St. Vitus Dance as a 
child. She later went to school but always 
appeared tired and it was discovered that she 
was made to get up at four o’clock every morning. 
She did not do as good work as the others but is 
mentally as capable. She went into domestic 
service in the county seat of Ab County. At one 
time, her behavior was questionable and she 
acquired the reputation of a prostitute. At 
present her reputation for chastity is good. She 
“apes” her mistress in speech and manner. “F,” 


THE WIN TRIBE 107 


born 1909, her brother, with black straight hair, 
dark brown eyes, skin light copper, facial contour 
oval, reached the fifth grade in school and did very 
fair work. He and his brother seldom missed 
school because of the weather. ‘“F” was the 
“showy kind in school—always wanted to answer 
all the questions.” His reactions are quick and 
he is bright and interested in things, and has a 
good disposition. He is a good worker and is now 
with his sister “C.”’ He is always telling marvel- 
ous tales with no apparent object in view. At 
one time he tried to set fire to the Mission build- 
ings. He is a sex degenerate and a masturbator. 

“G,” born 1911, the next boy of Hamlin’s, 
with straight, black, soft (not wiry) hair, dark 
brown eyes, medium dark olive skin, rather high 
cheek bones but with a tendency to a flat nose, 
tested 8.8 years mental age at the physical age of 
11.5. His immediate memory was good but 
vocabulary poor and with little reasoning power 
in abstract matters. At thirteen he is in the fifth 
grade doing fair work. He lacks the ability to 
stick to a thing, as do most of the Wins, has a bad 
temper and is overbearing and contentious at 
times. He has been a petty thief and has bad sex 
habits. Physically he is rather quick in his reac- 


108 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


tions and ambitious. ‘‘H,’’ his sister, born 1914, 
tested 8.6 years mentally at a physical age of 8.5 
and did fair work in the third grade in school. 
At the age of 9.5 she is doing fair work in the fourth 
grade. She knows things one day in school; on 
another knows nothing. ‘This is characteristic of 
many of the children in school. There are already 
signs that she is “slowing up” mentally. At 
ten, she is already “‘going with the boys.” She 
has some ability in singing. ‘“H” has straight 
black hair, brown eyes, copper skin, facial contour 
oval. “I,” her sister, is a typical Indian in physi- 
cal make-up except that she is very thin and has a 
tendency to a curl in her hair. She is in the 
second grade at eight and is fair in her work 
except in arithmetic. She leads the singing in the 
church and knows all the tunes by number. 

“J,” the next child of Hamlin, has black curly 
hair, brown eyes, copper skin. At six, he is in 
grade one. Another child, aged four, “‘K,’’ ends 
the list of children of Hamlin and Minchen. 
Twins, born several years ago, died, and a last 
child is reported to have “‘just died as the mother 
thought she had enough to care for.’”? These 
children are all workers; some are distinctly In- 
dian, others show negroid traits from the mother. 


THE WIN TRIBE 109 


They are all hypererotic and are committing anti- 
social acts in the sexual realm. Several of them 
have been petty thieves. There has been an 
expectancy that some of the children of Hamlin 
would do well but they all seem to “break” during 
the adolescent period, and none have “‘turned out” 
well. 

Vergil Jones, brother of Hamlin, born 1879, is 
like Hamlin in physical make-up. He is a good 
worker but not as capable nor does he have the 
planning ability of his brother. He, however, 
stays in one place and is a regular attendant at 
church. He isnot very intelligent, “‘has not much 
sense,” and cannot read and write. In 1916 he 
was arrested with “C,” the son of Lisle Lane, 
and fined for entering and breaking property of 
another Win. Further details of this are not 
known. He is reported somewhat intemperate 
at present. His family is considered the most 
degenerate group among the Wins. His wife, 
Lucy Hill, born 1883, light in color, the illegitimate 
daughter of Persis Hill, has ‘‘no sense,” and is 
very ignorant. Physically she is a poor type, 
underfed and under-nourished, but still energetic 
in her stupid way. She married Vergil Jones 
and has six living children. The oldest boy, 


110 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


“A,” born 1904, dark in color, was very stupid 
in school and learned nothing. He works, when 
employed, as a woodchopper. ‘B,” born 1906, 
with blue black hair, dark skin, a typical Indian, 
with much modesty, is doing very fair work in the 
fifth grade, industrious, dependable, truthful and 
conscientious but slow. His brother ‘‘C” was 
committed on December 10, 1920, to the Staunton, 
(Virginia) State Hospital as an idiot, for per- 
manent care. “FE,” born 1914, the next living 
child, at ten is in grade four in school, under- 
nourished, with poor mental ability. It is said 
that “E”’ is an illegitimate child, that Vergil is not 
her father. The other two children of Lucy are 
young. 

Nothing has been learned of Frank Jones the 
last son of Bob other than his marriage. 

Returning to the main line again, to continue 
the children of Hal Jones and Ada Brown; Elsie 
is known only by name as married to her cousin 
“D” Brown; no children. Another, Clara Jones, 
born 1836, is still living. She isa tall, heavy built 
woman weighing about 250 pounds. She has 
black, now becoming grey, straight hair, dark 
eyes, heavy coarse features with rather high cheek 
bones, medium brown skin with a tinge of copper 


THE WIN TRIBE 111 


in it. She does not have the coloring or appear- 
ance of the mulatto. She is very ignorant, her 
whole information being that of “‘what has gone 
on in the Win area for sixty years,’’ most of which 
she has forgotten. She is a typical beggar, always 
approaching strangers. Naturally she has had no 
schooling having grown up at a period when 
schools were not known except in the county seat 
and then not for the ‘‘colored.”’ At eighty-seven, 
she is a grumbler, very emotional, can put forth a 
copious flow of tears especially when her “rheu- 
matism” or “heart disease” is enquired about. She 
is industrious although untrained, and even now 
helps at times in stripping tobacco and caring 
for the younger children. She is always talking 
about and very proud of her ‘“‘clar-blooded 
ancestors.”’ She married first a ‘““M—’” and later 
Cyril Black in 1871. She had no children. She 
and Cyril live with their “adopted son,’ Bruno 
Jones, whom they have brought up since a little 
child. Esther Jones is a sister of Clara and little 
has been found concerning her. She married 
Asa Brown, the son of Al. Next in this fraternity 
was Faustina, born 1840 or so, who looked almost 
white. She had an illegitimate child by a man 
half white, but very black, of negro blood. This 


TE MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


child, Felice, married Abraham Johnson, men- 
tioned earlier. Faustina cooked for many years 
for a white owner before he married. Then she 
took Abraham Johnson away from her own daugh- 
ter for a while, living with him for seven years 
in a near-by city. At one time when a prostitute, 
living near the Mission, she sent word to the 
Mission asking for clothes for herself. She has 






ABRAHAM 
JOHNSON. 







TIMOTHY 


LUCIA DONALD SALOME WILDFR C 
BLACK BLACK 





CHART 22. THE ABRAHAM JOHNSON FAMILY 


always been considered a rascal. She died a few 
years ago. Felice, born 1855, was her only child. 
She has grey curly hair, blue eyes, facial contour 
round, short and fat in build, and with only a few 
months schooling in which she did not learn to 
read and write, she has grown up an ignorant 
woman. Her mentality is dull but she has been 
a hard worker and has done a great deal for the 


THE WIN TRIBE 113 


support of her family. She married Abraham 
Johnson, the illegitimate child of Mary Johnson 
and Albert Brown, had three children by him, 
and while he was away from home associating with 
her mother, had a bastard child Daniel. Abra- 
ham or Abe, born 1848, with grey curly hair now, 
skin light, tall and thin, claims to be a white man. 
He had a year’s schooling as a child and learned 
to read and write. When the Mission first started 
he became the superintendent of the Sunday 
School and kept this position for many years. 
He makes long speeches in church. He is very 
licentious, his cohabitation with his mother-in-law 
having just been mentioned. He is a good hand 
to work under direction but has never been 
particularly industrious and never amounted to 
anything. He and Felice had three children: 
Timothy, Gretel and Rex. Timothy, born 1872, 
the oldest, shows colored blood and a yellow 
complexion and it is stated that there is a question 
of his paternity. He has no education and is a 
tenant farmer, like the others. He is very deaf 
and stutters. He married Deborah Black, daugh-: 
ter of Nannie, and four children have been born 
to her since marriage. ‘The first two are reputed 
to be by Timothy; the others unknown as to 


114 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


father. Deborah, like her mother, as a Black, 
has much negro in her and is very dark. She has 
ordinary intelligence for a Win or negro of that 
class. She goes out to do washings and house- 
work and has the reputation of stealing whenever 
she can. Her first child, Donald, spent a little 
time in school] but never learned to read and write 
and is of comparatively low intelligence. At 
school he was well behaved and one of the better 
ones. He was arrested several times for petty 
offenses and in general amounted to nothing. 
He died in 1923 of pneumonia, his wife, Lucia 
Black, having a posthumous child the same year. 
Salome, born 1905, the second child of Deborah, 
has kinky hair, dark skin but white features, and 
reached only the second grade in school. Sheisa 
kleptomaniac and at times has exhibited hyster- 
ical spells. She has always been chaste, her 
mother has guarded her closely and kept her 
within sight up to the time she married Wilder 
Black, in 1923. “C,”’ son of Deborah, father un- 
known, very fair complexion, practically white, is 
listed in grade four in school at the age of eleven 
but cannot concentrate, is stupid and attends 
very irregularly. He is considered mentally 
defective. The other illegitimate child of De- 





AN AVERAGE WIN HOME 





INTERIOR OF A BETTER GRADE HOME 





THE WIN TRIBE 115 


borah is “D,” born 1915, of light complexion with 
no negroid features. Her father is reputed to be 
a certain white man, acarpenter. She is in grade 
three at school at the age of nine, but is not 
attending regularly. 

Gretel, the second child of F elice, born 1877, 
light complexion with negroid features, has long 
kinky hair, a big mouth and talks like a negro. 
She is of fair intelligence but has had practically 
no schooling. She has had several children. 
“A,” the first, born 1893, when Gretel was sixteen, 
is a bastard. Then follow two boys born after 
her marriage in 1899 to Union Brown, son of 
Adam. After that are two illegitimate children. 
One of these is married and now moved away; 
the other, “C” Johnson, now twelve, is in grade 
two in school and doing very fair work. Union 
tried to divorce Gretel on grounds of adultery but 
failed to produce the evidence in court and the 
case was dismissed, but Union left-her taking the 
two boys with him. After he left she cohabited 
with Andrew Hall and at one time tried to secure 
a license to marry but it was refused. She is 
still with him as his housekeeper. ‘‘A,” the girl, 
with black hair, black eyes, skin dark, with a 
negroid appearance, attended the Mission school 


116 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


and can read and write a little. She is mentally 
inert, slow in her reactions and “acts stupid.” 
She once said “she could write a beautiful letter 
but no one could read it.” She married Douglas 
Jones, one of the lowest Wins, and has several 
- children. The father of “‘C,”’ the daughter of 
Gretel, is probably a white man. 

Rex is the third of Felice’s legitimate children 
and was born in 1879. He has black curly hair, 
brown eyes, dark skin, facial contour oval, medium 
height and is very thin. He has had no schooling 
and cannot read or write, has a very narrow range 
of information and is rather low in intelligence. 
He is a libertine and every once in a while gets 
tired of Mildred, his wife, and goes to Ohio for a 
time. He is not very intelligent as seen by the 
statement he makes that “he would join church 
if the clergy did not have to have money and 
would live from house to house.” He is a great 
idler,—too proud to work. He also spends much 
time fox hunting. His wife is Mildred Brown, of 
poor intelligence, a hard working woman who has 
taken the burden of the whole family. They have 
several children. “A,” the oldest, born 1900, with 
black straight hair, dark eyes, light skin, attended 
school for two years and learned to read and write. 


THE WIN TRIBE 117 


He works for a milk concern in a near-by city. 
He is very offensive in manner, continually “‘show- 
ing off,’’ especially on trains. He “hasn’t much 
to contribute” was the answer when an informant 
was asked as to his ability. His brother ‘B,” 
born 1903, did better in school than ‘‘A”’ but he~ 
too attended only two years. He also is employed 
in the city. He is more intelligent than “A.” 
As a young boy he was adopted by Valentine 
Black. Heis now married. ‘“‘C,” his sister, born 
1905, with light hair and skin, is totally deaf, 
has never attended school, and is very incapable 
even in her own home. “D,” born 1907, with 
straight black hair, light skin, has never attended 
school and is of poor mentality. ‘“E,”’ born 1910, 
the last in this fraternity, is now at fourteen doing 
fair work in the third grade with only one years 
schooling. The child however shows little promise 
of much further mental development. 

Felice had one illegitimate child by an unknown 
father. This boy, Daniel Johnson, born 1890, 
is part negro and recognizes that he has that 
blood in his veins and so will not marry out of 
that race; he feels that none of the Wins is good 
enough to marry, hence he has remained single. 
He is a good farmer but uneducated, and main- 


118 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


tains pleasant relations with his neighbors and the 
Mission folks. This ends the descendants of 
Faustina Jones, the daughter of Hal. Hal’s wife, 
Ada, had a bastard Aaron Brown; already noted 
as the husband of Daphne Brown, daughter of 
Bill. 

The foregoing description gives the main part 
of the Jones family. Here and there are found 


LILLIF SAUL 
JONES BLACK 
CLARA CYRIL NAN [UE DAISY. | ANDREW AMANDA | URIAH AUGUSTA CARL apes 
JONES HALL BROWN BROWN 
Tie = 
sNDREW HALL 
FACLY omusatit 
Oat ate Oye, © Cl eS rs 
spr VALENTINE B TIMOTHY Ipeporak HARRIET BRUCE DELTA HARVEY 
JOHNSO! MASON JONES 
JOHNSON CHART 
A FY 


CuHart 23. THE SAvL-LILLIE FAMILY 


a few lines that are probably Indian white mixture 
only. The greater part, however, have a triple 
mixture; Indian, white and negro. Intellectually, 
it is low grade but here and there are found family 
groups that stand out in the area; groups that 
maintain themselves with a very fair social re- 
sponse. In general the social reaction is very 
poor and the economic levels very low. 


THE WIN TRIBE 119 


Hal had four sisters who will be taken up next. 
Two of these are unknown except by name. 
The others are Tabitha and Belinda. The 
former, born 1809, is recalled as a little, brown 
skinned, almost full blooded negro who, it is 
related, lived to be almost one hundred years of 
age. Nothing is known of her life other than the 
fact that she had a daughter Lillie by a negro 
slave, this daughter born about 1825. It is said 
that this child belonged to the Taylor family as a 
slave. Saul Black, a white man, came to Ab 
County from ‘Tidewater, Virginia and settled 
on some land in the Win country. He took Lillie: 
whether he bought Lillie as a slave is not known. 
He kept-her on his rented place and had several 
children by her. She was very ignorant but 
evidently very industrious. She was very black 
and had kinky hair. As the children grew up, 
she treated the lighter ones of the family with 
greater respect than the dark ones and would not 
permit the latter to eat at the same table with the 
light ones. This greater consideration given to 
the lighter colored members of a family is often 
found among the Wins as noted elsewhere, but 
this was particularly true of Lillie. It is known 
that several white men from Ab County have had 


120 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


illicit relations with Lillie more or less frequently. 
Saul Black was a tenant farmer of no particular 
abilicy, with no property and was never able to 
forge ahead. He was born about 1810. The 
only record of him is a marriage license issued to 
him and a Johnson in 1835. No explanation of 
this has been found. Lillie had six children: 
Cyril, Nannie, Daisy, Lu Ethel, Uriah, and Carl. 

Cyril has already been mentioned as the 
husband of Clara Jones and was born in 1850. 
He is a typical mixture, short, kinky hair now 
becoming grey, medium dark complexion, flat 
nose, a typical mulatto type. He has no schooling 
and never learned to read and write. He has 
always worked as a tenant farmer or as a laborer. 
He has never acquired anything and now as an 
old man of seventy-four, is poor. He and his wife 
live with their ‘‘adopted”’ son Bruno Jones and 
his wife Cilla and it is said that several of Cilla’s 
children are by Cyril. He recognizes that he is 
part negro and does not profess to be anything 
else. Nannie, his sister, is like him in physical 
traits except taller and thinner. She was born 
in 1851. She has typical negra hair, curly but 
long, now whitening, negro black skin coloring 
lacking the copper tint such as is found in Hamlin 


THE WIN TRIBE Pat 


Jones, for instance. She has no schooling and 
intellectually is very poor as to academic possibil- 
ities. She learned to spin and weave on a loom 
as a child and formerly made her own clothing. 
She lives in a ramshackle old cabin on the Tom 
(white) place. She has had five children, two 
dying young. Valentine, the oldest living, is 
supposed to be by a white man; Deborah by Allen 
Brown; and Mason by the old man on whose place 
she lived. Some of the white men of the commun- 
ity in years past are known to have gone to Nan- 
nie’s house for purposes of illicit relations and it is 
said that one minister of the gospel also fre- 
quented the house for the same reason. As an 
old woman, she takes wandering spells but never 
goes far. She has always supported herself by 
working. Her oldest child, Valentine, born 1870, 
has grey curly hair, grey eyes, light skin color, 
facial contour square. He had no schooling and 
can neither read nor write. He has a wide range 
of information and is quick mentally and physi- 
cally. Heis a good worker and thrifty—a sort of 
feudal lord to the Wins and loyal to both the 
Wins and the whites. He always ran a “‘harem”’ 
at his home, keeping a group of young Win married 
couples at his house until the time he joined the 


127 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


church. Since then he seems to have been less 
licentious in his behavior. His wife, Anita Brown, 
will not accompany him anywhere because of his 
reputation for licentiousness. Anita, born 1872, 
a daughter of Asa and Esther, has no children. 
Deborah Black, the second child of Nannie, 
born 1874, has much negro in her, dark skin, long 
black curly hair, thin angular face. She has 
ordinary intelligence, is industrious and main- 
tains a very comfortable home. She has been a 
prostitute at times. Her children are described 
under the husband, Timothy Johnson. Mason, 
the third child of Nannie, born 1886, six feet 
tall, good looking, light complexion, has been a 
horse trader and raised some tobacco. What 
money he earns he spends on women other than 
his wife, Harriet Jones, daughter of Imogen, 
whom he neglects. He has been a hard worker 
but never gets anywhere. Some of Hepsy’s chil- 
dren are reputed to be by him. Mason married 
Harriet in 1904 when he was eighteen and she nine- 
teen. They have six children: three attend school, 
are dull and slow in their work but are “‘more re- 
fined than some of the others.” Harriet never 
comes to the sales at the Mission and has little 
contact with them except through the school. 


123 


THE WIN TRIBE 


ATINVA TIVE MAXGNY FHL ‘$7 LAVHO 


— 
“sanor 
y ¥ ‘W1cgkwd QVUNOD = V ZORVI ort} 
* KIM 
IUVEO 
VIR NITHVH *ISVHO VATYS HOG 
xis Sect Bas 
naowa NIAZN senor AHO *caxor sanof sanort 
Oxy TY [ASINC1 SMUXQ MISSHG -NIN [NTiAVH] AcaK1 900v2 


VIGAT ) OSOH ~ONTHSY ViIndos 


1 LO OF] OL +0 O10 HO GIO THS 


124 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Daisy was the third child of Lillie, born 1854. 
All that is known of her is that she had one child 
Washington, or ‘‘Wash,” by Andrew Hall, il- 
legitimately. She died many years ago. Andrew 
then lived with her sister Lu Ethel and had many 
children by her. “Wash” Black, born 1878, has a 
light complexion, soft dark brown hair with some 
curl in it, one person having described him as 
looking like a foreigner with tuberculosis. He 1s 
tall and thin. He had some schooling and can 
read and write. As a young man and for a time 
after marriage he worked hard and did well but 
began to borrow money which he failed to pay back 
and soon after that became “spoiled” and settled 
back a bit and has been less industrious in more 
recent years. He is now a tenant farmer on the 
““M—” place and moving about each year “to 
better himself.” One man said of him, ‘He 
talks well and easily but when he tells the truth 
you know he has made a mistake.”’ For some 
time he has been janitor of the Mission church. 
This he continues to do although he has moved 
recently several miles from the buildings. He 
married Sophia Jones, daughter of Willett, a 
woman with black curly hair, brown eyes, light 
copper skin color, high cheek bones. Her mother 


THE WIN TRIBE 125 


is an Indian-white combination, her father a 
mixture of the three races. In studying the chil- 
dren of ‘‘Wash” and Sophia, all of whom are 
legitimate, it will be interesting to consider the 
characteristics. Sophia had a third grade educa- 
tion and now can read and write. It is said that 
she has a seventh grade academic ability, much 
better than the average Win. She and “Wash” 
had nine children reaching maturity and six who 
died in infancy. Lance, the oldest, born 1900, 
applied himself in school and went as far as the 
seventh grade and would have continued but his 
spirit and will were broken by his father and he 
left school and took to drinking for a time. He 
had wished to enter the Navy but his father 
prevented this. He has since become a tenant 
farmer in the Win area and married Charlotte 
Jones to legitimize their unborn child. He and 
his family now live with the father and he is trying 
hard to get along. He is morally weak and does 
not have the courage of his convictions. He ts 
dark in color with curly hair but is not typically 
Indian. His brother, “B,” born 1905, with black 
curly hair, brown eyes, dark skin, facial contour 
oval, had seven years schooling and did very fair 
work in school to the sixth grade. He was 


126 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


capable in arithmetic, a study in which the Wins 
are generally poor. He was desirous of attending 
a military camp but his father would not let him 
go. He has remained with the Wins and became 
a farm hand. In 1923, he forged a check for 
$27.00, was arrested, and sentenced to three 
years in prison, but white friends, secured a change 
of sentence to thirty days probation. ‘“C,” born 
1907, the next child of “‘Wash,” a light yellow in 
color, has attended school for a number of years 
but never went beyond the fourth grade. Some 
days he did very well; others very poorly; a char- 
acteristic of the group. He was troublesome in 
school, stubborn, and fought with the other chil- 
dren. He has been quite vicious in some of his 
behavior. He is at home with his father. ‘D,” 
born August 1, 1911, is a typical negro physically 
with short kinky black hair, dark skin, flat nose, 
typical negro inflection of the voice. At the 
physical age of 11.5, she tested 9.2 years old 
mentally by the Binet-Simon test. She does very 
fair average work in grade five at 12.5 years. 
Her teacher states that she is unusually reliable 
and bright and active physically. She has never 
been troublesome in school but has been known 
twice to have stolen money. “FE,” her brother, 


THE WIN TRIBE 127 


with medium brown curly hair, does very fair 
work in grade four at eleven. He seems to have 
some artistic and musical ability. His sister 
“G,” like “E” in physical make-up, is doing good 
work in grade one at the age of eight. The other 
children of this family are still small. The 
children of this family are seen to be more typical 
of negroes than Indians, and three of them are of 
very fair school ability. 

“Wash” Black had many half brothers and 
sisters who genetically are perhaps full sibs as 
their mothers are sisters. The first of these is 
Lydia, born 1878, (?) who married Hugo Jones 
already mentioned. Her brother, Zadoc Hall, 
born 1881, a mulatto type, ‘‘very sorry and no 
good,” married a sister of Cilla Smith who married 
Bruno Jones, practically white with blue eyes. 
They live “back in the mountains” and have not 
been seen. Zadoc died in 1923 leaving two chil- 
dren, one being Conrad who married Crystal 
Jones. Lyddy and Minchen, the next two chil- 
dren of the fraternity, have just been described 
under Hamlin Jones, whom they married. Cyrus, 
born 1886, the next brother, was a mulatto, ‘‘no 
account,” like his next older brother. He married 
first, in 1908, Bessie Jones, daughter of Hugo, 


128 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


then four months later, with no divorce interven- 
ing, secured another license from the same county 
clerk’s office and married a Miller. She is appar- 
ently a white woman. ‘They have one child born 
in 1921. In 1918 Cyrus was found guilty and 
fined for violation of the prohibition law in Ab 
County. “G,” his brother, born 1889, reputed 
illegitimate, “looks like a stylish white boy,” 
did very well in school and showed good mental 
ability but is ‘‘a rascal.” He has been a wanderer 
for a time in West Virginia and recently in Wash- 
ington, D. C. He “amounts to nothing.” He 
married a Nevin in 1911, and has one small child. 
Louise, the next child of Andrew and Lu Ethel, 
a medium dark negroid woman, rather vicious in 
type, and mean in disposition, married Alfred 
- Brown and her children are described under 
Alfred earlier. “I,’”’ the last of this fraternity, 
a mulatto type, “yellow,” has served three years 
in the penitentiary in West Virginia for horse 
stealing. He has been away from Ab County 
and little is known of him other than this. 
Uriah, is the next child of Lillie Black. Hewas 
born in 1858, has black (now grey), curly hair, 
dark brown eyes, skin with darkish red tinge, 
facial contour round, never had any schooling, 


THE WIN TRIBE 129 


has never learned to read and write, but has a very 
fair range of information. He is physically active, 
rather quick in his general reactions. He has 
always done farm labor and been very thrifty, 
has acquired some property upon which his first 
wife now lives. When the Mission chapel was 
built he was made one of the trustees. He mar- 
ried Amanda Brown, then sixteen, the black 
daughter of Amelia Brown, this on December 24, 
1879, and later had three children by her. He 
divorced her about 1912 on grounds of adultery 
and then married Augusta Brown, daughter of 
Austin, a prostitute. In 1923 it was known that 
Uriah was making liquor illegally and although 
previously warned that he was going to be 
searched, he still continued his activities and later 
was caught and fined about $150. This he paid 
by selling some of the land which he owned. He 
is now living on rented land. His first wife 
Amanda, born 1863, was the illegitimate daughter 
of Amelia Brown, daughter of Bill, and a white 
man of good stock. She has greyish hair with a 
slight curl, dark complexion, not showing much 
copper color, and is stockily built. She had no 
schooling, married young and has three children. 
Her home has always been clean, she is industrious, 


130 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


thrifty, and takes good care of her place. She 
and Uriah acquired land through saving, and she 
now lives on it since the divorce. She associates 
little with the other Wins and thinks she is “quite 
somebody.” She seldom buys at the Mission 
sales and has little contact with the workers. 
Recently, however, when one was ill she was very 
helpful. Her children are: Bruce, born about 
1880; Delta, born December, 1882; and Harvey, 
born about 1885. Bruce, with dark curly hair, 
yellow skin, negroid features but of mixed type, 
has always worked hard and acquired by thrift 
one hundred seventy-five acres of land worth about 
three thousand dollars. He is stingy, unlike the 
other Wins who spend or give away their money 
as soon as they get it. He is ugly in disposition, 
silent and quarrelsome. People are always having 
trouble with him at the Win cemetery which ad- 
joins his land. He has pneumonia almost every 
year, is sickly in general, and unable to do much 
work now. He is probably tubercular. It has 
been said that as a young boy he was quite 
trifling. , 

His sister, Delta, is shorter in stature than her 
mother and rather heavy. She has thin light 
brown hair, short curl, light skin color, prominent 


THE WIN TRIBE 131 


cheek bones, was accounted very stupid in school, 
and could not even be made to play with the other 
children. She has always worked hard in the 
fields as a laborer, and, like all in her family, 
saves what money she earns. She has a toxic 
goitre and complains of heart trouble. She states 
that she goes to a “town doctor” for treatment, 
meaning a physician in a near-by city, but others 
state that she has “lovers in that city,” and that 
she stays there days at a time. She has a violent 
temper, and a generally quarrelsome disposition. 
Once she threatened to shoot another with a 
pistol. By some she is considered insane at times. 
She lives with her mother. Harvey, her other 
brother, has dark curly hair and dark skin. He 
was injured in the leg when a child and sustained 
a severe cut which has rendered him crippled 
since. He became a carpenter by trade, and has 
farmed and raised horses. He was thrifty and 
being clever and capable has saved money. 
He loaned money out among the Wins and col- 
lected “high interest”? and so became generally 
known as a usurer. In 1916, Harvey went to 
another state with a white woman and married. 
They are now living in North Carolina. Nothing 
further is known of them. 


132 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Carl Black was a brother of Uriah and the last 
of Lillie’s children. He was born in 1860 and 
grew up a typical darkey with black kinky hair, 
dark skin, flat nose and thick lips. In fact he 
and his children were so dark and typically negro 
that they were not allowed to come to the Mission. 
He had no schooling but was a hard worker, 
though a “sorry” negro and always poor. He 





BERYL | ALTON Lycra DONALD 
LONG JOHNSON 


oon a ae LONG 
CHART CHAR’ 


CuHart 25. THe CArt-GERALDINE FAMILY 


married Geraldine Hall, a sister of Andrew, dark 
in color who considered herself a ‘“‘Portugee Tribe 
Indian,” as did Andrew. She was a frail, tubercu- 
lar woman, and died many years ago. Nothing is 
known of her first three children. ‘“D,” the next, 
very defective mentally, has five illegitimate chil- 
dren and lives on Bull Creek. She has not been 
seen. ‘The next, “E,’’ married a Brown, the son 
of Aaron, and Beatrice married Abel Long. They 


THE WIN TRIBE 133 


are also noted under their husbands. Wilder, 
the next, born 1897, attended school a bit but 
cannot read and write. He is very slow and dull 
mentally but with a very fair range of information. 
He was in the Army during the World War, serving 
part of the time in France. Physically he has 
straight black hair, black eyes, copper color skin, 
with the facial contour and bone structure of an 
Indian. He married Salome Johnson, also a Win. 
His sister, Beryl, born 1899, a typical mulatto, 
did rather well in school, married at fifteen and 
later married again after the death of her first 
husband. Now she is licentious, quarrelsome, 
and continually in trouble. She lives on Bull 
Creek. Lucia, the last child of Carl, a typical 
mulatto, was a prostitute before her marriage 
last year to Donald Johnson. This ends the 
description of the descendants of Tabitha Jones 
and of her one child Lillie. 

The Black family, descended from the mixture 
of an Indian-white woman and a negro, is the 
most characteristically negro group in the Win 
Tribe. The negroid physical and mental charac- 
teristics are very prominent and hide almost 
completely any Indian that may be present. 
Intellectually some in the group show a very fair 


134 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


reaction for a Win, and there is more industrious- 
‘ness, probably from the negro influence, than in 
the rest of the Tribe. These Blacks, however, 
are looked down upon by the rest of the Wins 
because of the obvious presence of negro blood. 
Next is Belinda Jones, the last child of Ned 
Jones and Iders. She was born about 1820 and 
was “black and had a nappy head.” She mated 





CHART 26. THE WILLETT FAMILY 


with a half negro, who was killed during the Civil 
War, and had two children, Willett and Oswald. 
Willett, born 1844, was a mulatto of the white 
type, honest, industrious, intelligent about things 
he knew, but very ignorant and amounted to 
nothing. He died in 1914 of heart disease, “hem- 
orrhage from the nose,” being given as the cause 
on his death record. He married Blanche Brown, 


THE WIN TRIBE 135 


daughter of Bill, born 1852, of whom it was im- 
possible to obtain information. They had eleven 
children. Dwight, the first, born 1869, black 
curly hair, black eyes, skin copper, negroid in 
make-up, a good worker but trifling, uneducated 
and unintelligent, is the “sorriest” of Willett’s 
children. He has been a thief and warrants for 
his arrest have been issued many times but he has 
never been arrested. He has had pleurisy several 
times and is now probably tubercular. He mar- 
ried Alice Brown, the daughter of Amelia and 
Adam, black curly hair, dark eyes, copper skin, 
not very intelligent and a thief. They have a 
poor home and maintain a very low standard of 
living. Douglas Jones is their oldest child, born 
1893, with dark hair and skin. He learned to 
read and write at the Mission school but is very 
slow and dull in his reactions. He has poor 
mentality and little range of information. He 
cannot answer simple questions as to dates, etc. 
He has served two terms in prison, in 1912 and 
again in 1919, for robbery. He was a deserter 
from the United States Army during the war. 
He married ‘“‘A” Johnson, daughter of Gretel, 
and has two small children. Nothing is known 
of the next two children of Willett: the next, 


136 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Sophia, with black curly hair, light copper skin, 
of very fair ability, has just previously been noted 
as the wife of “Wash” Black. The next two are 
also unknown. Bertie, born 1879, black curly 
hair, blue eyes, skin copper, facial contour oval, 
learned to read and write at the Mission school, 
is of fair mentality for a Win with a range of in- 
formation limited to her personal experience. 
She has been a prostitute all her life, is brazen 
and has an ugly temper, defiant and rude. She 
maintains a low grade home and permits her 
children to go about dirty. She attempts to earn 
a living by washing and doing housework but is 
very inefficient in her work. Like Oneida Ross, 
“she is an awful vamp.” She has four children 
of unknown fathers. Bertha, the first, born 1901, 
practically white, did very fair work and was a 
well-behaved child in school. She is lame from 
tuberculosis of the hip bones. She married Dean 
Brown in 1920. 

“B,” born 1905, the next child of Bertie, whose 
father is reputed to be Jack Jones, learned nothing 
in school and has been somewhat of a tramp since 
then. He will stay at one place a few days then 
go to another to work. “B” is a “copper colored 
boy,” and is now spoken of as capable in farm 


THE WIN TRIBE 137 


work and energetic in manner. ‘‘C,” his brother, 
born 1907, practically a white boy with light hair 
color, was very dull in school but is a good boy and 
industrious since leaving school. “D,” born 1911, 
the last of Bertie’s children, with light hair and 
blue eyes, white skin, attends school irregularly 
but is now doing fair work in the third grade. 
She stays with Dean Brown that she may go to 
school. Bertie is absolutely indifferent to the 
schooling or any of the activities of any of her 
children. 

Sylvester Jones, the next of Willett’s children, 
born 1880, black straight hair, dark skin, at- 
tended school for a time and can read and write. 
He is a tenant farmer and generally lazy but 
does make a crop. He is a good schemer and 
trader and always pays his debts to the Mission 
when buying clothes there. He is a thief and 
some people do not trust him at all and consider 
him generally unreliable. He formerly was sexton 
of the Mission church. His wife, Melissa Brown, 
daughter of Austin, sells butter and eggs and with 
their combined income they maintain a very fair 
standard of living and have a neat home, one of 
the best in the area. “I” Jones, brother of 
Sylvester, born 1886, black straight hair and quite 


138 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


dark in complexion, always worked hard and by 
keeping to himself did better than the others. 
He and his wife, a Nevin, blue eyes, red hair and 
very light skin, maintain a very fair standard of 
living. His two children have light skin and hair 
color. 

Ez, another brother, born 1887, attended school 
for a time but to little purpose. He has been a 
laborer and tenant farmer but is shiftless at times 
and generally inefficient. He was in the army 
during the World War but deserted once. He co- 
habited with Hepsy Brown for a time before 
marrying her in 1921. Lem, born 1889, the last 
of this fraternity, a typical negro with straight 
hair, had some schooling but never amounted to 
anything. During the World War he was a 
deserter and since then has not been very indus- 
trious. He cohabited for a time with Adelbert 
Brown’s wife, Hazel Miller, by whom he had one 
childy As’ born (192124) Memsvstilewiihebaze! 
Miller on a tenant farm near the Win area. 

Oswald is the brother of Willett and the other 
son of Belinda. He was born in 1848. He was 
very light in complexion, quiet in manner, but 
never attended any of the activities of the Mission. 
He was very ignorant and uneducated. He mar- 


THE WIN TRIBE 139 


ried thrice, first to Nera Ross, daughter of Reuben. 
By her he had Horace, Webster, “‘C,”’ Lon, Jack, 
“F” and “G.” Horace, born 1871, is a typical 
negro in physical features, with yellow mulatto 
skin. He has always been considered one of the 
most industrious of the Wins. He owned some 
property which he sold to Alphonse Brown. He 
found his own daughter once with a colored man 
and abused the child so that the colored people 


CHRISTINA 
NEHA OSWALD a) JONFS 
HILL 


ACHSA | HORACE 5 IMOSEN ¢ : JACK LON anes OF HARRY | waUD 
eee WEBSTER. JONES LONG B 
BURTON-WEBSTER CH 'T 


A B A B c A 8 c D A B € 


CHART 27. THe OSWALD FAMILY 





had him arrested for cruelty to children and 
Horace left the area before the trial. Later he 
attempted to get his children into the white school 
on account of their “Injun”’ blood. He married 
Achsa Long, daughter of Sam, and had several 
children by her. She died a few years ago as 
result of tuberculosis and ill treatment by Horace. 


He has been very licentious. Little is known of 
his children. 


140 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Webster, born 1873, his brother, rather light 
in color, reddish hue to his complexion, is ignorant, 
a good worker and capable. He never has ac- 
quired anything. He has one club foot, appar- 
ently from infantile paralysis. He is high tem- 
pered and troublesome. He married Imogen 
Jones, as already noted. “C,” his sister, born 
1875, light in color but with mulatto features, 
married a white man and now lives in Johnson 
City, Tenn. Her husband has a criminal record 
and has been a murderer. Lon, the next in the 
line, born 1880, has always been lazy and, as a 
tenant farmer, never did any work unless forced 
to do so by the man on the place where he lived. 
Then the following year he would always move 
to another place where his traits were not known. 
During the World War he worked in Johnson 
City, Tenn., in the iron works there, but has since 
returned to the Win country. He is of poor 
mentality, ignorant and known as “poor trash.’ 
His wife, Agnes Long, daughter of Sam, is not 
much brighter than he and the two maintain a 
very poor home. ‘They have no contacts with the 
Mission other than the buying of clothing and the 
sending of the children to school. These latter 
are of poor mentality. ‘A,’ born 1909, came to 


THE WIN TRIBE 141 


school only a short time—several months—but is 
capable of third grade education in the opinion 
of the teacher. She is capable in home matters. 
She has dark hair but only medium dark com- 
plexion. Her brother, ‘“‘B,” born 1911, has dark 
hair and dark skin and is very irregular in his 
attendance in school, does poor work, is quarrel- 
some and has been a petty thief. “C,” born 
January 1, 1912, has soft light brown hair and 
light skin. She is able to pass anywhere for a 
white child, and tested eight years mentally at the 
physical age of eleven years. She is now, at 
twelve, doing third grade work very poorly. She 
is brighter than her sibs, and it is said that she 
can be depended on to go to the store. The next 
child, ‘DD,’ born 1914, is tongue-tied and has 
never attended school. ‘“E,” the next, has a 
dark complexion and is considered ‘all right” 
mentally. 

Jack is the next son of Oswald, born 1879. 
He has dark hair, dark complexion, and high 
cheek bones, the Indian type. He is an un- 
intelligent, slow, disgruntled kind of man who has 
never amounted to anything, always poor, with an 
unintelligent wife, Gladys James. The family 
has maintained a poor standard of living. Jack 


142 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


has always worked. ‘A’ Jones is the oldest child 
of Gladys and was born in 1909 and considered an 
illegitimate child of one white man. ‘This child 
has black hair, gray eyes and is talland thin. He 
has attended school for seven or eight years and 
reads and writes but is dull and stupid and now 
quite troublesome at school. “C,” the next 
living child, born 1913, has dark straight hair, 
brown eyes, copper skin and is still in grade one 
at school although attending regularly for several 
years. ‘“D,” the next child, has red brown hair, 
very straight, grey eyes, light skin, and does very 
fair work in school and is bright for a Win. 
“E,” her sister, next younger, is now in the first 
year at school and doing better than her older 
brother. It is said that all the children of Gladys 
may be illegitimate, as she has been very promiscu- 
ous always. 

Returning now to the children of Oswald: 
“F” is not known, while “G,” the last of the 
fraternity, has medium straight brown hair, blue 
eyes and light skin. Born 1887, he never at- 
tended school and can neither read nor write. He 
is a tenant farmer on the Sailes place. Nera Ross, 
the first wife of Oswald, died of tuberculosis and 
he then married a Hill in 1892 and had twin boys 


THE WIN TRIBE 143 


by her the following year who died. It is not 
known what became of this woman but in 1894 
he married Christine Jones, daughter of Gub, 
and a child Harry, was born in 1894, the marriage 
taking place to legitimize the child. Harry has 
dark curly hair, blue eyes and light skin. He had 
some schooling and did very fair work for a Win. 
However, he is rather ambitionless. He has 
always behaved himself well and worked hard 
on the Sailes place. He married Maud Brown, 
daughter of Abigail and they have three small 
children. 

This ends the description of the children of 
Oswald, a very defective group mentally and 
socially; the lowest in the whole Tribe. This 
also ends the account of the whole Win Tribe so 
far as studied. 


POPULATION 


The population of the Win group is 658. Five 
hundred sixty-six of these belong to the Brown- 
Jones family, called one family because of the 
common Indian Thomas ancestor, though includ- 
ing besides the name Brown and Jones, the Lane, 
Black, Johnson, Long, and Hall names (in gen- 
eral), and 84 are of out blood, who have married 


144 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


into the network here and there. Thirty-five 
of the 84 are classed as white, 49 as ‘‘colored.” 
This “colored” here includes those of Indian, negro 
or mixed blood. 

There are four negroes who married into the 
family. Three of these were full blooded negroes; 


TABLE I 
Population 


GENERATION 


In: 
“COTE Malev tetas Li Ss 28 SOM TT Gl aazoS 
“Colored” female.......... 416 | 22} 59/102) 66) 1 | 260 
Wihite nraiesci cy ui ee wus inj tae 4 are 20 
White female.............. 

Out: 
“Colored” malercs ont. oar DSTO Clee 22 
“Colored” female...........| 1 BN hee fg Bs Bae, 27 
White male sie. yee res « 6} 5] 4 15 
White'female.. 28 97 2 Slo 2S 20 

Lota oo) as Pa dane No ee tie tar Leta en ch tetera haem an eee 658 


Frederick Sams, Sam Moore, Rebecca Conroy 
wife of Allen Brown. Frisco Payson who married 
Belinda Jones was very black but considered 
one-half white, by mixture. Elisha Hall, who 
has mated into the group at several places, is 
a light mulatto. The father of Austin Brown, 





BETTER GRADE HOMES OF THE WINS 


eae 
a 


or) 


rs 
a 
= 


Sis > toes 


af 


A 





THE WIN TRIBE 145 


son of Elza Lane Brown, is reputed a full blood 
negro, though not known by name. It is thus 
seen that there is quite an admixture of negro 
blood into the group. 

Pure white blood, or “‘clar blood,” as the Wins 
speak of it, has been brought into the group by a 
number of people, some legitimately, others il- 
legitimately. Among the former group are Sam 
Long, Reuben Ross, Susie and Celia Johnson. 
Dr. Merrill Alexander, the father of Amanda and 
El Brown; Earle Booker, the father of Areta 
Brown’s illegitimate children; Mary Johnson, the 
mother of Abraham Johnson; and Chester Dolan, 
the “X”’, and Alan Maynard, the “Y’’, who mated 
with Abigail Brown have introduced white blood 
into the group by illegitimate matings. 

Starting with the three Indian lines, Thomas, 
Jones and Lane (and it is possible that the first two 
of these were half-breed whites, with the later 
addition of the negro and the whites) it can be seen 
that this is truly a mixture of the Indian, Negro 
and White. 


FECUNDITY 


The fecundity in the Win group has been high. 
Table II gives the rate by generations. There 


ee 


0¢'T 
L8'¢ 
£3 °P 
SoS 
00°9 
00°9 
00°? 


MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


ALIGNONOGHA 
aOV aaGAV 


asi keh, STE OS. 6 ee 88 Beara ek es Bo Ban hie © ees ner ee oA Ol we tame Teruo) 








Sct I Peer Bae ee teh O SF See PVE ede) Oc eer hot lee 
¢ Let IIA 
LE T T T Eee Csi Sa el. Ca eo eee IA 
LV Tata C gE ter Ae ey 2 aed ai 2s pan ee ges BS De A 
97 C T PS Octo Lato eteoencn le borne ies open Al 
6 T T Lest Sa a A III 
c T T II 
I T I 
—|—|—|—} 4} || $+ 4} - | -+ |} 
sawnar| 41) 90} St} st] er|a}imjorje|s}4i/9j}s|rie;z}risg 


NOILVYANDO 


(SUAHLON GalaavNNa ONIGNIONI) SHIVNAA ONTONGOAdAA JO NAAGTIHO JO ATAWAN 





146 


AytpUunga sy 
Il f1aVL 


THE WIN TRIBE 147 


have been comparatively few women who. have 
had no children. The fecundity of some others 
has not been known. There are a sufficiently 
large number of women bearing children to show 
that the group, as a whole, is reproducing at a very 
high rate. Generation IV with a reproduction 
rate of 5.58 children per female is practically 
through reproduction but generation V is still 
reproducing and now has a rate of 4.83 children 
per child bearing female and this rate will mount 
higher as 14 of the 47 in this generation are still 
bearing children. In generation VI, already with 
a rate of 3.87 children per child bearing female, 
the greater number of women are still bearing. 
The number of women known to be barren is 
14 of a known total of 139 women whose reproduc- 
tive activity has been checked. This is approxi- 
mately 10 per cent of the group. The Jukes hada 
total of 144 barren women of a total of 658 women 
known, or approximately 22 per cent. In con- 
sidering this difference of fecundity which seems 
significant, it may be of value to note that prac- 
tically no syphilis is found among the Wins while 
it was comparatively prevalent among the Jukes. 
The social level of the Win area in Ab County, as 
to sexual morality, has been very low. ‘This region 


148 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


is more compact in size than that of the Jukes 
and more opportunity for contact between the 
sexes may be possible, but it would not seem that 
this slight difference would influence the rate of 
reproduction in illicit matings to any great 
extent. 

Even with a rather high death rate in infancy 
and a high incidence of tuberculosis, this group is 
maintaining its own in point of numbers. 


CONSANGUINITY 


Adjoining will be found a table of matings 
among the Wins. In a number of cases the two 
consorts may be related to each other through 
more than one line. In such cases the nearest 
line of relationship has been used. The table 
shows that approximately half of the matings 
have been into the family itself. In generation 
V 58.6 per cent of the matings were back into the 
family. Generation VI is still mating but even 
at the present time 37 per cent of the unions are 
consanguineous. The social barrier erected in 
earlier times and still continued against the Wins 
by the whites and negroes of Ab County has been 
to a great extent the chief factor in forcing the 
Wins into matings with their own folks. This 


149 


THE WIN TRIBE 


v 67 


0°0S 

OLE 

9°8S 

0°0S 

1 ET 

0°e¢ 
SONTLV 
NISQ00 


JO INGO 
aad 


T9-SOT 


ts 
tI-te 
Lo-€V 
€T-Le 

v-S 

—£ 


SONILTVIAL 
TIVLOL 


‘Surzdsyo JNoy}IM sSur}eU Jo IaquINU 94} S9}VOIPUL FYSI oy} 3e Joquinu 


oy} {warp poonpoid yor sBurzeUL Jo Laquinu sy} S9yVOIpUI WUINTOD Yowa Jo 79] 94} ¥ Joquinu oy, 
PR he ee ee SS eee 


6¢-SP | 77-09 | O-S |Z-F | T-9 |S-8 |O-€ |S-6 |Z-IT |O-T |F-7F |€-6 |" TPIO.L 

1-é Get =a Cc ITA 

U8 iron! Bi og ae Be eee a T IA 

sf Reco a an 2 eg ee fe ome tb Noa Ts ioe Oy oe (hoe area | Ser A 

Leber s I-T pee Ad ed Wag 5 Be) $28 So od Fe, AI 

v-? = T Til 

=o 43 T II 

es Ae) Batam Ss ae ted! 

eng | Ntsa0o q f ap NOILVUANTD 
TVLOL B NISQOO GaIHL NISQN09 GNOOGS 


NIsooo Isat 


a 


KP1UINSUDSUOD 
il aTavL 


150 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


social barrier is not due to their own choosing as 
many of them consider it a desirable social asset 
to be married to a white person or one lighter than 
themselves. Hence matings on the part of the 
Wins into the white is much desired. 

This social barrier has segregated the Wins into 
the Coon Mountain area and the Bull Creek sec- 
tion with a few stragglers on the remote edges of 
this general region. Here the Browns, the Jones 
and the Lanes, “the Indians,” have lived— 
and the James, Smiths, Johnsons, Longs, Nevins 
and Millers (white or “mixed’’), either in the 
region or nearby, have also resided and mixtures 
between all these have taken place. Some few 
“stray”? men have mated here and there. The 
James and the Nevins are low class white families. 
The Millers and Smiths came from a similar mixed 
area at Smithtown, about twenty miles away, also 
noted in this report. The Johnson family in 
earlier days was a low grade white family several 
of whose women mated into the group. Sam 
Long was a white boy brought up in a negro family 
and he married a Brown. Practically all of the 
out matings have been into poor stocks mentally. 
The consanguineous matings in the group are like- 
wise of a poor stock into itself. The number of 


THE WIN TRIBE 151 


first cousin matings is comparatively small. A 
greater number is found in the second cousin col- 
umn and an almost equal number in the third 
column set. A survey of the chart shows no 
matings of either cousin or outbloods where there 
is apparently much difference in the offspring due 
to the consanguinity in one line and not in an- 
other. ‘This is no doubt due to the fact that all 
the matings are from like poor stocks. 

As an example of the statement above that the 
cousin matings in poor stocks do not necessarily 
make the stock weaker, examination of the 
Leander Brown-Minerva Brown cousin mating 
shows the children Revo and Vera much better in 
ability than any of the children of Leander by 
Beulah James, an out mating with a common 
father, yet the two mothers were very much alike 
in stock. In some of the cousin matings, the 
children vary very much in ability, as in the chil- 
dren of Ulysses Jones and Helena Ross where 
several, Owen, “‘C,” and ‘“‘E,” are much better in 
ability than the rest of their sibs. The Sandy 
Brown-Areta Brown cousin mating on the other 
hand has produced a set of children all of whom are 
very stupid mentally. Other examples of this 
may also be found. 


152 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


The high incidence of consanguinity here is 
noted in order to call particular attention to the 
factors causing such intermarriage. These are 
discussed again later. 

















TABLE IV 
Legitimacy 
4 ILLEGITIMATE Ps 
B z ~~ 5 < 
: Be BES sou te 
GENERATION i x, © so se a a 
aa | eg | # |PPe| Be | B | 8 
ae 3 ss i be 2 > 
a8 c 2 |see|sec| 6 S 
ef : S |scF) She) & : 
LV 54 44. 4 6 SL Ueye ie boven 
V 144 119 11 Oe 10 Li conan ce 
VI 229 181 20 it 17 79.1 | 20.9 
VII 139 109 16 13 1 78.4 | 21.6 
VIII 4. 3 4 75;0025.0 
‘Lotale,cow 570 449 51 42 28 78290) Jit 
LEGITIMACY 


A tabulation of births in the Win group accord- 
ing to legitimacy gives a general figure of about 
80 per cent of the births legitimate and 20 per cent 
illegitimate. ‘There are quite a number of women 
among the Wins known to have been promiscuous 
sexually. In fact several persons have said of 
one generation that only two, naming Sophia 


THE WIN TRIBE 153 


Black and Minchen Jones, knew who were the 
fathers of their children. It is probably an 
exaggeration to say that these two are the only 
chaste among the group as many in later marriages 
are known to have been chaste after matrimony. 
Many are known, however, to have been promiscu- 
ous and for this reason the real legitimacy in the 
group is no doubt much less than the 80 per cent 
shown by the table and it would be difficult to 
make a fair estimate of the number of children 
on the chart who were really legitimate. For 
example, Cilla Smith Jones, wife of Bruno, has 
thirteen children; twelve are classed as legitimate, 
one as illegitimate. She is known to have been 
exceedingly promiscuous both before and after 
marriage and especially so with Cyril Black, her 
“foster daddy.” 

A number of cases have been noticed of children 
born illegitimately who in turn at adult age had 
illegitimate children. Abigail Brown had eight 
illegitimate children; one of these eight had one 
illegitimate child and two of them had two such 
children. Another, Imogen Jones, had four il- 
legitimate children, one of whom in turn has had 
two illegitimate children. Persis Hill had two 
illegitimate children, one of whom had a bastard. 


154 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Beulah James, of out blood, had among other 
children, one illegitimate who later had an il- 
legitimate child. Lilie Jones Black had six 
illegitimate children; one of these six had five 
bastards and one of these five in the third genera- 
tion has had in turn two bastards. 

The effect on a child of the knowledge that its 
mother is living alone and that it has no father, or, 
if aware of the father, knows that he is the father 
only by chance, cannot be measured. The child 
in turn grows up and often repeats the history of 
illegitimacy by bringing forth into the world 
another child who in turn has no association with 
its father. ‘The social consciousness of the Win 
region is so low that such illegitimacy, while a 
matter of common discussion, is not looked down 
upon or frowned against in any way. ‘The birth 
of an illegitimate child is taken as a matter of 
course and no social stigma placed upon the 
mother or on the putative father. 


THe SEx MorREsS 


The marriage relationships among the Wins are 
typical of such communities. The conditions 
governing the relationships between the two sexes 
in the earlier days is little known other than the 


THE WIN TRIBE 155 


illicit matings of two of the Wins, Belinda and 
Tabitha Jones, with negroes and resulting 1il- 
legitimate offspring. In this generation, III, 
the people born about the period of 1810 and just 
following, there are many marriages with a few 
of the women having illegitimate as well as 
legitimate children. In generation IV much more 
is known of the relationships between the sexes; 
here much promiscuity of the men and women is 
found and five women have illegitimate children 
as single women and without visible means of 
support for themselves or their families. A few 
white men of Ab County frequently visited the 
Win country for purposes of sexual intercourse 
and there was also much illicit relationship be- 
tween the Win men and women. In generation 
V, at a time when much more is known of the 
people, the visits of white men from other parts 
of the county were still going on, and, as a matter 
of fact, are still, and study shows a large number 
of the women promiscuous, i.e., not chaste. It 
has been said that practically all the women were 
immoral before marriage and it is known that 
many marriages were forced because of a preg- 
nancy. In some cases, men and women have 
lived together for years, chaste and faithful to 


156 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


each other during this period, and later have 
married after their children had reached quite an 
age. For example, Austin and Roxanna Brown 
lived together and had seven children the oldest 
about fifteen when the two were married in 1879. 
Leander Brown and Beulah James lived together 
and had six children, the oldest sixteen, when they 
were married in 1908. In the later generations 
some of the women have been chaste until mar- 
riage, but the great majority have been licentious 
before marriage and some have continued their 
licentiousness after marriage. A fair number of 
women have been reputed chaste after marriage. 
Some have been licentious always without mar- 
riage. Many factors have led to this. The 
home conditions of the people—many of them 
living in one room and few of them having more 
than two rooms in which to house a large family 
that may number ten or twelve—lead to a famil- 
iarity in sex matters. There has been no restraint 
on the part of the older ones and no response to the 
mores can take place by the children where the 
parents have no such respect. 

The boys and girls become adolescent among the 
Wins at a rather early age. Obscene and prurient 
stories are rife among the school children and are 


THE WIN TRIBE 157 


repeated by some of the very young ones, six and 
seven years of age. The girls become “boy-crazy”’ 
at the age of nine, ten and eleven. A feeble 
minded boy of twelve with a mental age of six 
told the writers all about the illegitimate children 
of one of the Win women and who the fathers 
were in a perfectly nonchalant manner. The 
young girls at eleven and twelve are sexually ac- 
tive while the boys of thirteen are distinctly 
adolescent. In the case of the young girl, the 
period of adolescence is almost simultaneous with 
her leaving school, the latter follows the former. 
The child in the next few years becomes more or 
less promiscuous, generally with the younger boys 
of the vicinity. Pregnancy is generally followed 
by marriage unless the girl has been too pro- 
miscuous. 

Competent local observers feel that the moral 
behavior of the Wins is exceedingly low and see 
little or no change in more recent years since the 
school and church mission have been active. 
These statements would seem to be borne out by 
the present investigation. The sexual relations 
_of the Wins are on a very low plane, almost that 
of the animal in their freedom. 


158 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


ALCOHOLISM 


Intemperance and drunkenness are not found 
to any great extent among the Wins. Some drink- 
ing takes place at gatherings such as corn huskings 
and dances and a few of the men drink somewhat 
heavily by themselves. There is some “moon- 
shining’ going on but not to any great extent. 
The economic level of the Wins is too low to offer 
a market for bootleggers from the outside. The 
use of alcoholic liquors in the past does not seem 
to have been any greater than at present. 


VENEREAL DISEASE 


The physicians in Ab County report little or 
no venereal disease among the Wins. ‘There was 
formerly a negro woman who lived near the Win 
area who “cured” syphilis by the use of vegetable 
drugs and charms but a cursory investigation 
shows that no Wins ever went to her. If gonor- 
rhea is present it has never come to the attention 
of the physicians. 


‘TUBERCULOSIS 


The death records of the Wins have been very 
meagre and previous to 1912 no mention is made 


THE WIN TRIBE 159 


of the cause of death in the few records that do 
exist. These few records with the information 
from the people show that 16 of the Wins are 
known to have died from tuberculosis and two 
more probably from the same disease. There are 


two adults now living known to have the disease 
and three other suspected cases. These figures 


are based on general knowledge, not on the results 
of any regular examinations. It is felt by the 
trained nurse at the Mission School that a routine 
examination would show some incipient cases 
among the children. The physical condition of 
some indicate it now. This number of 18 deaths 
and 5 other living cases makes a total of 23 in a 
population of 658 a rather high rate. Pure blood 
Indians are very susceptible to the disease as are 
negroes. It is evident that the mixed race is the 
same. 
SCHOOLS 


THEIR HISTORY: STUDIES OF CHILDREN 


For many years none of the people in the Coon 
Mountain region had an opportunity to attend 
schools. After the Civil War the Wins were 
given a chance to attend the schools for the 
negroes when these were started but they were 


160 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


denied admission to the white schools. As the 
Wins refused to attend the negro schools claiming 
Indian blood and declining to associate with the 
colored race, the result was that they remained 
without schooling. Beginning about 1895, the 
county started a school for the “Indians” with 
Mr. Hamlet, a white citizen of the county, as 
teacher. This he carried on for about ten years 
and during this period a good many of the Wins 
were taught by him. As now, their attendance 
was irregular and the children stopped early in the 
spring “to help work on the farm at home.” 
During this time Mr. Hamlet states that none of 
the Wins was able to do average work in school 
or progress sufficiently to make his training of 
any value. Later Miss Kenyon took over the 
school and since that time the school activities 
have been under the joint control of the mission 
and the county authorities. Miss Kenyon was 
formerly a teacher in a normal school in the middle 
west. She was followed by Miss Gardner. Later 
Miss Fanny Gibbon assisted by Miss Nancy 
West taught for five years. Since the latter part 
of 1922 Miss Amy White and Miss Jane Small 
have taught the school. 

The school has drawn from the whole Win area 


THE WIN TRIBE 161 


but more particularly from the Coon Mountain 
region. The people living in Buck Hollow have 
not attended as much, feeling that the distance, 
about five miles, was too great and so have not 
sent their children. In the course of the thirty 
years of schooling not one of the Wins have been 
sufficiently educated to become a teacher and 
take on the position of a leader of his own people. 
It might be mentioned here incidentally that 
none of the people has ever become a ‘“‘preacher.”’ 
Some few have learned to read and write fairly 
well and some can figure enough to estimate the 
amount of lumber necessary to build a house or 
bricks for a chimney. ‘The greater number have 
never gone beyond the third grade. A few 
have reached the fifth grade, a couple the seventh, 
but not one has ever gone to high school. Most 
of those who were more capable in their work have 
never done anything with their schooling. One, 
Helena Ross Jones, wife of Ulysses, who received 
some schooling, has farm papers in her home which 
the children read. ‘This is the only family where 
there is any reading at home. 

It is difficult to analyze the work of the school 
at the present time because of the irregularity of 
attendance on the part of the children. There 


162 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


are children of all ages in the same grade and there 
is lack of personnel and equipment to divide the 
children into groups on a basis of mental ability, 
thus permitting those with some ability to pro- 
gress faster than the group. 
TABLE V 
Resulis obtained with Stanford Revision of Binet-Simon test 


PHYSI- | MENTAL 








CAL AGE] AGE PEMA ES 
Grade 4 
sie Nb he 13.8 | 8.0 | 1924, repeating grade 
big bb eee ge tel 11.5 | 9.2 | Teacher says best pupil mentally 
Powe ees TT} hehe: 1924, grade 5 
Grade 3 
PL Die porconet 11.1 | 8.0 | Teacher says defective mentally 
pe Ue sera $.64)720 1924, grade 3 
she et A 8.5 | 8.6 | Teacher says good one day, poor next; 
1924, grade 4 
Grade 2 
SG ies 14.0 | 6.5 | Teacher says stupid; 1924, out of 
school 
Grade 1 
gs arr any 8.0 | 8.1 | Lacks imagination; 1924, grade 3 
hel Kad a Bt 8.0] 6.5 | 1924, grade 1 
el Rates tecte 7.0 | 5.0 | 1924, grade 2 
Uk gla “048825 


The Stanford revision of the Binet Simon test 
was given to eleven children during the winter of 
1923. The best then were selected as well as a 
scattering through the group. 


THE WIN TRIBE 163 


Arranged by grades Table V appears. 

The highest mental age secured by any child 
was 9.2 years by “B,”’ then aged 11.5 years 
physically and in grade four, an Indian-negro 
mixture, more predominantly negro. At 12.5 
age she is in grade five doing very fair work for the 
grade. ‘‘C,” at 11.5 years physically, tested 8.8 
mentally, a good memory assisting in making this 
score. A year later he is in grade five. ‘“F,” 
at 8.5 years of age, tested 8.6 in the third grade; 
at 9.5 she is in grade four and doing very fair work. 
“B” above, has a sister “‘H,’’ grade one, who 
tested eight years mentally at the physical age of 
eight. All the other children tested had a 
mental age much lower than their physical age, 
the lowest being that of “‘G’’ who tested mentally 
6.5 when 14 years old. It is evident that only a 
small proportion of the children in the school 
group are even approximating a mental test age 
coincident with their physical age. Language 
difficulties did not interfere with the giving of the 
tests. 

Table VI gives a brief summary of the school 
ability of the children who were present in school 
at any time during the year 1923-1924, based on 
the teacher’s estimate. They are classified ac- 














100g CY 9 T eT XTX 
1oog | tood A10A 9 T €T | IIAX 
ATV pooyy V ¢ eT ITAX 
AIG’ ITE T 100g Te[NsoiI] v ¢ eT IAX 
ATC ATCT ‘i v eT AX 
pooy ATCT C ¢ eT AIX 
wn .Ssajadoy],, | 100d Ata 100g v ¢ CP SSie tbc 
: «PIdnjs,, 100g 100d v ¢£ £T TIX 
Jowulid ul sivok 100g ood Aa, L I FI IX 
o SIoquInu UT poor 100g eq 9 Z PI xX 
Jooyos ul Iva 4SITT 100g 100g S ¢ FI XI 
= sroquinu url 100g ITC ITB ¢ ¢ vl IITA 
4 pepuru-s[qoe,, | rood A19\ 100g 9 Z tI | IDA 
a Jooyos 19T ey ood AoA, ¢ S al TA 
) 100g 100g P P FI A 
a 100g Iood A193 A, 8 I ST AI 
= Spiom Mouy jou s90q | ood Ara, rey 9 I CT TII 
Arey 100d 9 ¢ ST II 
Ajjeyusu MOTS | poos Ara leq L S ST I 
swavngu ao adnan | SONVONSEIV | Cruse | savEO HOV TVAGLATGNI 
sH Kouaryforg pun aaunpuayjy 100495 
= IA “aTdvi 


165 





S]ISUO} peg Ioog | 100d AI9A ¢ T Or XIXXX 
Iopeel poor) ITe.J 100g € T OL TTIAXXX 
gjqedeo Apire.q ioog | 100d Aro, Z Z OT TIAXXX 
Id 100g IIe] ¢ T OT IAXXX 
poor Ile] 0 T OT AXXX 
poystmnousrspuy 100g eq 0 v OT | AIXXxX 
IIe] Te J T ¢ OT TIXxXxX 
= ureyd ye} youueD, 100g 100g P T TT TIXxXxX 
pooy Trey c 3 ia! IXXX 
5 9}21}UIDUOD JOUUZ) 100g rood AI9A, I y Lt XXX 
ee areq-}>2 100g c = IT XIXX 
Zz WSVIDAY Ie J Ie] T v TT TIIAXX 
= 97331] SYTRL 100g 100g ¢ I cl TIAXX 
= ajqedey Ire J 100g P Z cl IAXX 
= Yyyeoy 100g 100g ITe,J ¢ ¢ cr | AXX 
Ire 100g ¢ ¢ cl AIXX 
apeis YINoj suryvoday ITe,.J 100g Z 4 cl TITxXxX 
ITe,J 100g ¢ * cl XX 
ITe,J ITB ‘3 1 cl IxXX 
WPRIIAY eq IIe] T ¢ ara | xX 
SuuvWaa gm aint | SONVONGLLV praia aavao GOV TVNGIAIGNI 











panuruoj—TA ATAV.L 


MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


166 





100g TTC 0 T 9 AT 
WSVIDAYV roog | 100d A1oA 0 T z AIT 
ll"), 100d ea | T T GL SELE 
sioquinu UI 100g Ie pooy 0 c 8 ITI 
[118 ayy, | ~Jood Ata 100g T if 8 lis 
100g 100g T T 8 T 
«P1dnys,, 100g 100g T T 8 XTTX 
AyjeotsAyd yea 100g IIe] T : 8 ITIATX 
SNOAIONT 100g IIe T T 8 ITATX 
Ie Te T T 8 IATX 
AYIGV Ite J 1oog | 100d AtaA 0 re 8 yd 4 
WRIIAV Ile] 100g Cc T 6 AITX 
ioog | 100d A193 0 ¢ 6 TWTX 
poor eT 0 2 6 ITTX 
Ieq eq 0 ¢ 6 ITX 
[218 oT. 100g 100g ¢ T OT is 
SHUVNTa etna | SONVGNELLV | _y ponabet ae £3 GOV ‘TVOGLAIGNI 


SES EE Ve es dai nate ad Oa aaa i cal enc ale aE INE ees, Bes ae Ea a SE TS oS rn eS 
papnpuod—TA ATAVL 


THE WIN TRIBE 167 


cording to age and retardation on a basis of initial 
school attendance at age six and grade promotion 
once a year. The attendance is given and re- 
marks, generally by the teacher. 

Five of these fifty-five have done well in their 
grade the past year (1923-1924), 19 fair, 27 poor 
and 4 very poor. Twenty-four of the 55 have 
attended regularly, that is, at least three-fourths 
of the time, and this school has a seven month’s 
session. ‘The others have attended very irregu- 
larly. The amount of retardation based on age 
grade condition shows none better than grade 
for his age, nine at grade for his age, eleven re- 
tarded one year, seven two years, ten three years, 
and the rest, eighteen in number, from four to 
eight years retarded. 

Practically all the children listed here are within 
walking distance of the school or have places 
where they can stay during the school week. 
Some have several miles to walk and a few as 
much as four miles. There is no truant officer 
for the district and no means are taken to enforce 
attendance at the school. The children are kept 
home on the least pretext and often go home 
during the middle of the day’s session. A stranger 
appearing at the school is often the cause of many 


168 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


of the children getting up from their desks and 
going directly home. Public health physicians 
and nurses who have visited the school have made 
a few children frightened of strangers. 

The few examinations made, and the general 
school results found, indicate that the Wins from 
an academic point of view are not very capable 
and much below the average for a like school 
of white children. The fact that no one has 
even been to high school is significant. This 
group is composed of intellects much below the 
average. Their schooling then should be practical 
and fitted for the lives they will live as tenant 
farmers and laborers for few of them have arisen 
from this level in which they are now and have 
been for many years. 

The people in the Win area lived on a non-school 
basis until about 1890, i.e., their school education 
was nil with the exception of one subscription 
school which ran for several weeks at one time 
soon after the Civil War. ‘Their literacy was very 
low. After the regular school started in the 90’s 
some learned to read and write but the average 
schooling for those years was not greater than the 
third grade. In the earlier days one girl reached 
the seventh grade but the great majority remained 


THE WIN TRIBE 169 


in the third and fourth grade level. The attend- 
ance then, as later, was very irregular, so school 
conditions were then much as now apparently. 
A study of the grade levels of the children who 
have been attending the school for the past year, 
from the age of twelve on, shows that the average 
grade reached by the twenty-seven pupils in this 
group is only the third (see Table VI). If those 
thirteen years old and over are taken, nineteen 
show a grade proficiency of third grade as an aver- 
age. At present seven children fourteen years old 
and four children older are in school and their 
grade average is only three. Children begin to 
drop out of school at the age of thirteen and very 
few attend after the fourteenth year. From this 
set of figures, it appears that the present Win 
generation is to grow up and work and maintain 
itself on a third grade schooling basis; a basis 
which does not seem to have been increased as a 
result of thirty years of education. 


CHURCH AND MIssIOoN HISTORY 


In the 1850’s two men, Judge Charles Millis, 
a lay preacher in the Baptist Church, and 
Colonel James Colpitt, a class leader in the 
Methodist Church South, both citizens of Ab 


170 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


County, became interested in the Wins because 
one of the Wins had stated that they never had 
any preaching. Hence these two started meet- 
ings, held revival services, conducted burial 
ceremonies and established a joint church with a 
Baptist minister to immerse those who preferred 
that mode and a Methodist to instruct those who 
preferred the Methodist church. This work 
continued until the Civil War when the evangel- 
ists were called into army service. Soon after the 
war Northern Methodist preachers worked in the 
area for several years. ‘Then the work stopped. 
About 1890 a Baptist colporteur and a Presby- 
terian elder preached to them for a time. About 
1900 the Reverend Thomas Briggs of the Episcopal 
Church of Ab built a chapel and secured a religious 
worker in the person of Miss Blanchard, a woman 
of high character and ideals. She was assisted by 
Miss Kenyon as teacher in the school which was 
taken over partly from the county, the Episcopal 
Church paying part of the salary of the worker, 
the county the rest. 

After about five years, these two ceased work 
and Miss Gardner became worker and teacher 
for a period of about ten years. Miss Gardner 
was succeeded by Miss Gibbon assisted by Miss 


THE WIN TRIBE 171 


West. Miss Gibbon had spent a number of years 
in mission work for the Episcopal Church among 
the Indians of the Northwest and was chosen 
for the Ab Mission because of her experience there. 
Miss Gibbon left in 1922 and Miss Amy White, 
a trained nurse and mission worker, and Miss 
Jane Small as teacher took charge of the mission 
and school. 

The mission and school is still under the Ab 
Episcopal Church and is called the Coon Moun- 
tain Mission. The school is operated on a com- 
bination budget. At present the county pays 
$65 per month for six month’s schooling or $390 for 
the academic year. The church makes it up to 
$700. The head worker is now paid $1,000 because 
of her training asanurse. Of this sum $900 comes 
from the Southwestern Diocese of the Episcopal 
Church of Virginia. 

Religious activities have now been carried on 
by the missionaries of the Episcopal church for 
over twenty years. Church services are held 
regularly, the rector at Ab preaching often; 
other services being carried on by the mission 
workers. Sunday School is conducted by a lay 
superintendent. 

Second hand and new clothing and books and 


172 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


magazines have been sent to the mission for 
distribution by the Church since the starting of 
the mission activities. The clothing is sold to the 
Wins at the mission buildings on “sales days,”’ 
although people may secure things at any time. 
They are sold for a very nominal sum, very much 
less than their second hand value. This money 
is used for the support of the mission activities 
and sometimes amounts’ to enough to pay the 
salary of one worker. Many of the families buy 
all their apparel}from the mission at a very low 
figure. In a few cases clothing is given directly 
to very poor families or children. Layettes are 
given when needed. 

The supply secretary of the Woman’s Auxiliary 
to the National Council of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church writes that from May 1920 to May 
1923 the value of the boxes sent to the Coon Moun- 
tain Mission was $4,429.65. Many of the articles 
sent were new. Under the sales policy above the 
mission secured far less than this amount from 
the purchasers of the goods. 

This clothing is sold at such a low figure that 
it is practically being given away and the people 
who buy realize that it is but a fraction of the 
cost of the same article in a store. Not all the 


THE WIN TRIBE 173 


Wins buy at the Mission but those who do have 
become dependent upon that supply, partially 
because of the proximity and also because of the 
very low price. These sales also offer an oppor- 
tunity for an interchange of commodities since 
some of the Wins pay for the clothes with eggs, 
potatoes, etc., which are used at the mission. 

Little money is at hand among the group. 
The economic level of these people is so low that 
many of the families do not handle more than an 
average of $20 per month for all expenses, and 
this money is generally available after the tobacco 
crop is turned in during the fall months. Often 
this money is already spent at the store on credit, 
vouched for by the landlord. ‘The question arises 
whether these sales at their very low figure are not 
assisting in maintaining a low economic level by 
taking away the stimulus for more activity for 
better clothing and living conditions which might 
be present if it were necessary to buy clothes at 
store prices. — 

Is this scheme of low prices pauperizing the 
people? One of the former workers at the Coon 
Mountain Mission has felt that the sale of goods 
at the mission has been harmful to the people. 
The present rector at Ab feels, however, that there 


174 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


are some families so poor that they could not 
possibly clothe their children at the market price, 
and believes that the mission boxes are very 
valuable. Several of the Win women have 
stated that they would not be able to clothe 
their children without this source of cheap supply. 
One of these women is of the more intelligent and 
better class and economically should be independ- 
ent and self-supporting on a normal basis of 
expenditures. The subject needs further inves- 
tigation. 


MARRIAGE RECORDS 


The marriage and birth records of Virginia 
since 1870 state the color of the persons concerned 
in these records as White, Indian, Colored (or 
Negro), and sometimes the word “mixed” is used. 
This record of the color is desired for two reasons 
—for the information itself and also to check the 
matter of matings between races, some of which 
are forbidden by statute. Marriages between the 
negro or colored and white have never been legal- 
ized in Virginia and social feeling is very strong 
against it. The common law of Virginia does not 
recognize matings between races and open co- 
habitation of the white and colored is not per- 


THE WIN TRIBE 175 


mitted. It is, of course, common knowledge that 
illicit relations between white men and colored 
women have been and are taking place. This 
has been true since the coming of the black man 
to this country. 

In order to assist in the prevention of mis- 
cegenation Virginia and the other Southern states 
have required the filling out of the marriage license 
application with respect to color. County clerks 
have also been careful in issuing licenses in doubt- 
ful cases, where they were not sure of the ‘“‘color.” 

The Wins have been an anomalous race from 
the standpoint of registration. They have 
claimed to be Indians. The people of the county 
have recognized some Indian blood, but point 
to a negro mixture in many and so are inclined to 
consider the whole group negro. The United 
States Census in earlier days classified the Wins 
as “free persons of color’ and so did not dis- 
tinguish them from the freed slaves of pure negro 
descent. As late as the federal census of 1910 
with the exception of seven they were all listed as 
“colored.” In the census of 1920 they all slipped 
by an apparently ignorant census taker and the 
entire group is classified as “Indian” having 
statistically increased a hundred fold in a decade. 


176 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Most interesting is this tabular study of the 
marriage records from the standpoint of color 
noted in the county clerk’s books. 

Table VII shows the matings of the parents as 
recorded in the marriage licenses, their real racial 
make-up as shown by this study and the color 
stated in the application of their children when 
married. Fourteen of these matings are colored 
x colored and four white x white. These col. 
x col. may just as well be Indian xX Indian 
actually as no distinction was made in the records 
previous to 1900. Prior to that date everything 
except white was ‘‘colored.” It will be seen that 
the colored matings had children listed at their 
‘time of marriage under all three races while the 
white X white matings had children in turn listed 
white and Indian. There were seven matings 
where the parents gave no color in the license 
application and all kinds of ‘‘colors’’ are found 
in the children. Examining the records further 
we find that eleven persons were married twice. 
Five of these were married with the same ‘‘color’’ 
on the license at both registrations. Six, however, 
were married with a “color” different at the second 
from the first. Mick Brown, an IW, actually, 
and son of a “col X col” mating, married first 


177 


THE WIN TRIBE 





J sv [eysAIQ pur 9730] 
-IeyD SM SB auUIA, pur yroT 
TS? «,, 
J SB BdDEqQ2Y 
‘M se uewioy pure ulpyueiy 
J SB vayiV ‘N S® ..D,, 
pue ..d,, -M SB Bisnsny pue 
essay “azsqjepy ‘AyWeH ‘AIT 
M S® seisnoq 
M pue'N se 
[479g ‘[ SB viony pue sop 
rc en “M se 991T} 89 pue «WV 
MSS [hed 
J Sv sWIO[eS pur pleuog 
M S® Xa SN se Aqjoury, 
J sB qoovt 
J SB yUvy SM Se oissaq 
N s® smo ‘{ sv Javisy 
pure osey ‘MM se pAoyy pue 
qof ‘ounig ‘sassh[Q ‘eurstayd 
M 
BISA ‘Ni se zouy pure surydosof 
M S® ottUy 
te 2 | 
-BYIT SAA SB UAT pur vusjoyy 
M Se AyS pue 
BION :(Z)M PUP (T)N SB 31 
M SB 9 pue «fy, af se «WV» 
M WI0q ‘Uvag pure oruojuy 





SV Galwavn Nada 


MXM 
MXM 
MXM 
MXM 
19D X 199 
Pir X Wr 
10 X 19D 
PD X PD 
Pe XK Pr 
19 XPD 
PD X 1D 
ie) TD 


aASNAOIT 
NI NGAID BOTOO 





UVaA 


‘OUT M ‘AA SoaBaNy ‘NT Swerpuy ‘7 








MNI X MI AF ae fe et SOO fe Sty DUS OUT IET 
AV oO NI st eereeeseeeessouof euslay pur sessf[-) 
MI X MNI [°° '* *'souef yefnog pue umoig rzspuvey 
MI NC NI ee eee eee “UMOIG VUULXOY pue unsny 
MI x MNI ee ed souof ao1TV pue Waa 
ALN ON ol ew ee {Pe IUIp[esss) pue [rey 
MI < MNI a 68 50 0-46,0) 6.5 5 souof ey OLUIY pue We] 
MNT A MND uosuyof Yyeioged pue Aq}oULy, 
MNI < MI eee ewes rae “uosuyof ddI[97 pue weyeiqy 
MI X MI "t+ s*sSuo0'Ty oIppy pue souof uojing 
mG ew, eas mec ay ‘*‘uMOIg ep[ny pue souof osny_Z 
M te MI (7: @ @ oC -ce%e 6. @ 0 e58 ITT SIO'T pue souof sny 
MAP OSAN beat cate ee UMOIG PAIOUIPY pue Jopuvey 
MI a MI mee SERS ay AKG Sr PorIUr A pue yoquie’y 
ANTS CNA UMOIG €}]9Z] pUe ssOY puro 
MX MI ste seessriry ApuBy, pue uMorg jrodny 
MI X MI “*****-uMmoIg suydeg pue uMOIg UoIKy 
MI X MI “+ essssoquof ofjaq pue UMOoIg osuoyd Ty 
Na gabon ee SULLUVd ONILOVULNOO 





Sasuay advt4dput KQ umoys sp Uuoynorifissnj9 jwIDY 


IA d@TavL 


178 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


as negro (the word negro being used here instead 
of colored as on the record to obviate any mis- 
understanding of terms from the frequent use 
of the word “colored’’), then eight years later in 
1921,as white. Mick has one-fourth Indian blood 
which by Virginia law of 1919 defines him as In- 
dian; further his physical characteristics would 
place him as an Indian at once. Lisle Ross, an 
IW mixture on her mother’s side, unknown as to 
father, married first an Indian mixture as ‘‘col- 
ored”’ (i.e., negro) in 1885; in 1905 she married 
Keford Hall, a mulatto, as white. Her brother 
Simon Brown, probably illegitimate also, at least 
three-fourths Indian, married an IN as white in 
1895 and in 1902 an IW as negro. Adam Brown, 
an IW, at least three-fourths Indian, married an 
IW as negro in 1867 and in 1879 married an NW 
as white. Leander Brown, an INW, married 
first Minerva Brown, an IW as negro in 1881, 
then Beulah James, unknown exactly as to mix- 
ture but with some white blood, as white in 1908. 
Beryl Black, an INW, married an IW as negro in 
1914; seven years later married an IW as white. 
Examining further one finds ‘‘D”’ Brown, born 
August 26, 1923, registered as Indian from a 
mating registered as white x white; father Mick 


THE WIN TRIBE 179 


Brown. On October 5, 1904, Mason Black, 
the son of a white man and Nannie Black, the 
daughter of a white man and a negress with earlier 
Indian taint, having therefore white, negro and 
Indian blood, married Harriet Jones with Indian 
and white blood at least—has one child, among 
others, “F’’, born August 22, 1921, registered as 
Indian yet undoubtedly having one-sixteenth at 
least of negro blood, which under the code of 
Virginia of 1919 classifies him as negro under the 
rule that one-sixteenth or more of negro blood 
shall be deemed negro. Quite a few similar cases 
could be cited—especially the children of Carl 
Black. 

These few registrations indicate that the present 
registration of marriages and births is not showing 
clearly the racial make-up of the Wins. In the 
earlier days, before 1900, the colored x colored 
matings are inclusive of both Indian and colored. 
Hence these earlier records are valueless for the 
purpose of determining racial composition in any 
case. After 1900 more discrimination was used, 
apparently, as after that date the term ‘“‘Indian’’ 
often appears. Still Louise Hall, whose grand- 
mother was a very black negro with some Indian 
blood, is registered Indian, and her cousins ‘‘E,”’ 


180 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


Wilder and Lucia, children of Carl Black, all typical 
mulattoes, are registered Indian, all after the year 
1905. The records of those who married twice 
with different registration ‘‘colors” indicates that 
the present system of records is inadequate. 

The marriage of people in Virginia has been 
under the provisions of the law in Section 6/7, 
code of Virginia of 1919, for many years. This is 
as follows: ‘““Every person having one-sixteenth 
or more of negro blood shall be deemed a colored 
person, and every person not a colored person 
having one-fourth or more of Indian blood shall 
be deemed an Indian.” In 1924 the legislature 
passed an act which has since become widely 
known as the Virginia Racial Integrity Law. 
This act provides not only for the registration of 
the people of Virginia by color, but makes an 
entirely new definition of the colored race. Sec- 
tion five reads in part as follows: ‘For the pur- 
poses of this act, the term ‘white person’ shall 
apply only to the person who has no trace whatso- 
ever of any blood other than Caucasian; but 
persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the 
blood of the American Indian and have no other 
non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white 
persons.”’ 


THE WIN TRIBE 181 


By inference then any trace of negro blood is 
sufficient to classify one as colored. The same 
section also states that laws heretofore passed 
and now in effect regarding the intermarriage of 
white and colored shall apply to marriages pro- 
hibited by this act. It also provides that whites 
may marry only whites or a person with no other 
admixture than American Indian. If this law 
can be enforced, it will preserve racial integrity. 


OTHER MIXED AREAS 


PAINT CREEK, VIRGINIA 


On the top of the Blue Ridge in Ad County, 
Virginia, at Paint Creek, with an elevation of 2,000 
feet, is a group of “red-skinned people” who have 
considered themselves white folks although sepa- 
rated from them socially. They number approxi- 
mately three hundred now and live more or less 
together along Paint Creek about eight miles 
from its mouth. Physically the great majority 
have the appearance of Indians, with high cheek 
bones, reddish complexion and black straight hair. 
The rest show negro physical characteristics, 
especially the curly hair and the flat nose. The 
generally light color of the skin indicates the 
presence of some white blood. The place is often 
called Williamstown from the number of Williams 
who formerly lived there. Previous to the Civil 
War there were several “typical Indians” at 
Williamstown. These particular ones are de- 
scribed as tall with dark red skin, high cheek 
bones, well built physically and stalwart in their 
appearance. ‘They were proud people and claimed 

182 


OTHER MIXED AREAS 183 


direct Indian blood. ‘They lived on the top of the 
Blue. Ridge before the Revolutionary War and 
some of them, the Williams and Hammond fami- 
lies, still had, a few years ago, the land grant papers 
in their possession. ‘The Gerrys are another stock 
considered purer who lived further north on the 
Blue Ridge. There is a record that Governor 
Spottswood, of colonial days in Virginia, saw 
these people when passing through the Blue 
Ridge at a gap. Ad County was a battle ground 
for the Indians and it is said that these people 
were of Iroquois origin and remained there after 
the battles. As this region is rather far south 
for the Iroquois, this recollection is questioned. 

In 1912 schools were started and since then have 
been carried on regularly. The teacher reports 
that children with mixed Indian-negro bloods 
do not progress as rapidly as the purer Indian 
blood. The standard of living is low, many are 
unindustrious and “sorry.” Some are moon- 
shiners. More recently their income has been 
augmented by the opportunity to get out ties 
for the Bond River Lumber Company which is 
cutting off that whole region. 

There is no doubt of the presence of negro blood 
in these ‘‘Indian-whites” even though it is denied 


184 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


by the people themselves. Matings are now tak- 
ing place between these people and the Wins, 
_ the whites in the Valley and among themselves. 


SMITHTOWN, AB COUNTY, VIRGINIA 


Living in the extreme western edge of Ab 
County and nestling against the very foot of the 
high peaks of the Blue Ridge, near Solo, is Smith- 
town. Here the Smiths live, about fifteen fam- 
ilies, all descended from Fred Smith, an Indian, 
who settled there about 1800 or earlier. Their 
early genealogy is not clear: much admixture 
with white blood is acknowledged. Reputable 
people state that there has been mixture of the 
negro with the Smiths in the earlier period and 
it is showing now in the physical characteristics of 
some in kinky hair, flat noses and thick lips. 
The hair texture in many is soft, its color is 
medium brown or lighter; the skin olive or light 
in color and white in some instances with often 
the reddish copper showing through. The il- 
legitimacy is high and sex relations very loose 
and the paternity of many is not known. A few 
children show fair mentality but school facilities 
have been very meagre because of the inaccessi- 
bility of the place. The present school teacher, 


OTHER MIXED AREAS 185 


one of the Smiths, has himself the equivalent of a 
fifth grade education. 

They live over an area several miles long rather 
fertile in spots but ten miles away from a graded 
road. ‘Tobacco is their money crop. They are 
mostly tenants and very poor. 


Ac County, VIRGINIA 


In Ag County, Virginia, are many scattered 
families with Indian-negro-white bloods in their 
make-up. Some of these have come from the 
Ab County groups; others are unknown as to 
origin. ‘These are all individual families and 
there are no group areas as in the Wins. 


Am COUNTY, VIRGINIA 


Near Polo, Am County, are some “Indians,’’ 
several hundred in number, separated entirely 
from the white in social intercourse. It is re- 
ported that there has been admixture of the 
original Indian stock with both the white and the 
negro but in spite of that the people still claim 
to be Indian. As such, they have special schools 
for their children. 


186 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 
WEROMOS 


In Rob and Plumb Counties are the Weromos, 
a set of Indians probably descending from the 
Powhatan Tribe. These Weromos live on 800 
acres of land ceded to them by the Colonial Assem- 
bly. Some few years ago the tribe numbered 
110. All authorities in American ethnology agree 
that the blood has become much tainted especially 
with negro blood. The estimate of its purity 
runs all the way from one-sixteenth to three- 
fourths. In recent years there has been a rule 
that there must be no matings with the negroes. 
Their government is that of a pure democracy, 
a chief and council of four are elected. The lands 
are held in common. A free school is held on the 
reservation with teachers supplied by the state. 
A tactless official once sent a negro to take charge 
of the school but he was promptly ousted. The 
present chief of the Weromos is a typical Indian 
and has a very high regard for his people and is 
deeply interested in their welfare. 


RENABEES 


The Renabees group is found in Clearview 
County. This name was given to these people 


OTHER MIXED AREAS 187 


by an act of the legislature some years ago through 
the activity of a preacher. A prominent resident 
of the county for many years states that these 
people, who are of mixed Indian, negro and white 
origin, with straight hair and flat noses and an 
olive skin generally, are offshoots from the 
Weromos and have no Renabee blood at all. 
Of the total number of about 200 there are only 
a very few who are distinctly Indian in type. 
The Renabees live in lowlands in little clearings 
and are very poor. A small school in charge of 
a white teacher furnished by the state offers their 
only means of education. 


DELAWARE AND MARYLAND 


Near Stanton, Delaware, are people with very 
dark skin and black straight hair. They asso- 
ciate little with the white and have their own 
schoolhouse and teacher. They are an Indian- 
negro mixture which has also mated with the 
whites. 

Dr. Henry of Wilmington states that there is an 
Indian-negro mixture in the southern part of 
Maryland. There has also been some white mix- 
ture with this combination. ‘These are a low class 
of people socially and intellectually. 


188 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 
RoBIn County, NORTH CAROLINA 


The Robin County, North Carolina, region is 
the home of approximately 10,000 “Indians” 
called the “Rivers.”’ Their history is in doubt, 
but they claim to be descended from the Captain 
John White colony left on Cremo Island. Sir 
Walter Raleigh had planted a colony in 1584 on 
Cremo Island which later returned to England. 
Another colony in 1585 remained but a short while. 
In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh sent another colony 
in charge of Captain John White as governor. 
They settled at Cremo Island. White went back 
to England for supplies leaving 120 persons under 
90 family names in the colony. There were 
friendly Indians “50 miles up into the main” 
called Rivers Indians who had wanted the white 
people to move to their country. It was arranged 
by White that if these people went to the Rivers 
country they were to leave the word ‘Rivers’ 
carved on a tree so that he would know where 
there were when he returned. In 1590 when 
White returned the word “Rivers” was found 
carved as directed. These Rivers were evidently 
in a region southwest from Cremo Island. The 
sound immediately west of Cremo Island still 


OTHER MIXED AREAS 189 


bears the name Rivers. Apparently at this time 
no attempt was made to find them. 

The next clue is from an early historian writing 
in 1714: ‘‘The ‘Hat’ Indians, who lived on Cremo 
Island, or much frequented it, tell us that several 
of their ancestors were white people and could 
talk in a book, as we do, the truth of which is 
confirmed by grey eyes being frequently found 
amongst these Indians and no others. They 
value themselves extremely for this affinity to the 
English and are ready to do them all friendly 
olices.’) Later there is’.a record that,at the 
coming of the white settlers there was found 
located on the banks of the Limb River, a tribe 
of Indians speaking English, tilling the soil, 
owning slaves and practising many of the arts of 
civilized life. These Indians call themselves 
‘““Meros” and this name is still retained among the 
Indians of Tennessee, whose ancestors are claimed 
by the tribe in Robin County to have come origi- 
nally with their ancestors from eastern North 
Carolina. French emigrants, as early as 1690, 
had settled in Licking Sound, where they came 
in contact with a mixed race to whom they gave 
the name ‘‘Mero.” 

A study of the names of the Captain John 


190 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


White colony shows that 40 per cent of the family 
names in that colony are again found among the 
present Rivers in Robin County. 

At present the Indians in Robin County cover 
the greater part of the western end of that county 
and center about Slater. They also spread out 
into Norton County, South Carolina, which is 
just across the state line. There are approxi- 
mately 10,000 in Robin and3,000in Norton County 
making the whole group 13,000. Robin County 
is level except for the creeks cutting through and 
‘is located in the coastal plain. The soil is sandy 
with scrub pine and other small trees over much 
of the land. The main crop is cotton but corn is 
raised to feed a rather large number of hogs. 
With the exception of a few men who are in 
business in Slater they are mostly tillers of the 
soil. 

Physically all types of hair are seen, long, 
straight to kinky and curly and soft; the skin 
color varies from a deep blue-black through the 
copper red to the olive and the yellow and the 
white. With the lighter skins, one finds blue eyes 
and sometimes hazel. A River is very sensitive 
of the fact that there has been some negro ad- 
mixture and hedges away from an enquiry into 


OTHER MIXED AREAS 191 


the matter. They resent questioning as to the 
probability of the negro having come into their 
blood and coédperation so far with them has been 
impossible. Suggestions furnished by white peo- 
ple in Swenson point to the mixture with the 
negro taking place about the year 1835 when by 
act of the legislature these Indians were classed as 
colored. For some years past and more particu- 
larly at present, the trustees of the school are very 
careful to keep negroes out of the area so little 
mixture is now taking place but the effects of past 
mixtures show in “‘nappy and curly” heads, flat 
noses and thick lips and a “‘yellow” complexion. 
These conditions are not always found together 
but often several appear in one family group. The 
skin color of the people seems to have little to do 
with their economic or intellectual level, some 
of the very dark people being of very high grade 
ability. ‘The Prices are a very high grade set of 
people, teachers and leaders. They have a notice- 
able red color which seems to be quite constant 
in the family. These same Prices are related 
to the Price gang of criminals who murdered and 
robbed immediately after the Civil War. 

The Havens, Keiths, Duncans and Prices are 
the aristocrats of the Rivers. Some of them 


192 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


have graduated from college. One, a Price, is a 
graduate of Johns Hopkins Medical School. 
Stephen Wall, ex-U. S. Senator from Mississippi, 
was born in Robin County, and is one of the tribe. 
He graduated from Oberlin College and later 
went to Mississippi. Stanley Newcomb was 
educated at Howard University in Washington, 
became a lawyer in North Carolina and repre- 
sented Athol County in the general assembly. 
Later he was dean of a well known college in the 
state. He was always classed as colored. 

In 1835, the negroes and free persons of mixed 
blood were disfranchised by amendment to the 
constitution of North Carolina. This act was 
enforced on the Indians of Robin County. This is 
evidence that they were considered at that time 
of negro descent at least within the fourth gener- 
ation, irrespective of their claims as Indians. 
Marriages between free persons of color and the 
white were forbidden in 1854. All these laws 
rendered the Indians subject to the same treat- 
ment as the negroes, and it is probably during this 
time that admixture with the negro took place. 

In 1885 a local historian made a study of the 
origin of the group and came to the conclusion 
that they were the descendants of the John White 


OTHER MIXED AREAS 193 


colony and the friendly tribe of Rivers Indians 
on the Cremo River. He secured the passage of 
an act by the North Carolina legislature providing 
that these Indians were to be known and desig- 
nated as the Rivers Indians and provided special 
schools for them. They have since been known 
by this name. In 1887 a normal school was pro- 
vided for the Rivers and a board of Indian trustees 
selected. This same legislature provided that 
marriage between the Rivers Indians and persons 
of negro descent to the third generation inclusive 
should be void. 

Following the passage of these laws the Rivers 
once more came to be a race by itself and ceased 
to be classed with the negroes. 

At present a fine normal school is operating with 
special teachers in agriculture and domestic 
science besides the ordinary academic work. 
Grade schools are scattered over the area with 
white and Indian teachers. No school tests were 
given here but inspection of the ages of the chil- 
dren with respect to grade showed that there was 
a large amount of school retardation. 

Many of the Indians have gone away to other 
places and in many communities have passed 
for white and married into white stocks. Some 


194 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


have left but later returned and again taken up 
farming or gone into business. 

The problem of illegitimacy is not greater here 
than in the general population of this section. 
There is much immorality among the Indians but 
it is apparently decreasing with the advent of 
better schools. ‘The Indians seem to disapprove 
greatly of anyone from the outside having any 
relationships with their women even though im- 
morality within the group is not noticeably 
frowned upon. 

There is not an exceptionally large amount of 
crime among the Rivers. The Indians will come 
and testify in court against their friend or enemy 
with an equally stolid face. ‘They harbor a grudge 
a long, long time. In the temperamental field 
they show no resemblance to the negro. In the 
case of Indian-negro crosses the Indian seems to 
completely dominate in temperamental char- 
acteristics. 

The Indians now are guarding the purity of their 
stock and vigilance is more necessary now that 
these Indians have better schools than the 
negroes. ‘The latter are moving onto the Indian 
lands hoping they may get their children into the 
better Indian schools. 


OTHER MIXED AREAS 195 


Norton County, SOUTH CAROLINA 


In Norton County, South Carolina, are 3,000 
of these Rivers as mentioned above. This state 
has taken no interest in these people and they 
have no special classification as do their relatives 
in North Carolina. Until within recent years 
they have gone to colored schools or attended 
none. This group has much more admixture 
with the mulatto as shown by physical characters 
and many matings between the two are found 
today. ‘There is some mixing of the white through 
illicit matings. The people are all very poor, 
living on the land as tenant farmers. The county 
superintendent states that they are very improvi- 
dent, unindustrious and immoral. 

The northwestern corner of Norton County 
contains the group known as the Cheek Indians. 
These are people whose physical characteristics 
vary from the black straight hair and deep brown 
eyes and dark red skin to kinky hair and soft 
brown hair and light skin, with the red showing 
through. Many of these own their own land 
whereas the South Carolina Rivers are renters. 
The Cheeks are traders and have better homes. 
They are much interested in each other’s business 


196 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


and will trade horses and tell lies for each other. 
Among the lower classes there is some licentious- 
ness. Special schools are provided for the Cheeks 
and the school superintendent of the county feels 
that these children rank well with the white 
pupils when they have good teachers. About 
eight or ten of the Cheeks have gone to college. 
The Cheeks claim they are directly descended 
from the Indian tribe of that name which lived 
in this section of the state in colonial days. This 
claim is no doubt well authenticated but there 
has been considerable mixing with negro and 
white. 

It is rather interesting to note that some of the 
same names appear among the Cheeks, the 
South Carolina Rivers, and also in the group at 
Slater. This raises the question of the common 
origin of the Slater and the Cheek peoples. 


RAND CouNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA 


At Pons is a sand hill section where there is a 
feeble-minded group of people said to be mixed 
Indian-negro-white. Some of these are Indian 
with negro showing through in hair color, nose and 
lips. Others are practically white showing little 
trace of stocks other than white. Some of the 


OTHER MIXED AREAS 197 


relationships could be worked out, others are 
impossible because of their mixing. A full-blooded 
Chinaman, named Cook, mated into the group 
early which complicates any specific studies. 


MeEros, TENNESSEE 


In southwest Virginia and in eastern Tennessee 
are the Meros, a mixed group of people generally 
dark in color, some with straight hair, some 
curly, and ‘‘dark’’ skin color. It is said that this 
special group which is quite numerous, is an off- 
shoot of the Rivers, and it is considered a triple 
mixture. 


GENERAL SUMMARY 


This general report shows that there has been 
and still is much mating between the Indian, the 
negro and the white races in the South. There 
are a number of spots where Indians lived pre- 
vious to the Revolution and, because they were 
“dark-skinned,” they were prevented in the main 
from having social relations with the white. Here 
and there a white man mated with some Indian 
woman. Sometimes these matings were by mar- 
riage, often illegitimately. The resulting offspring 
were still dark-in color. In the early part of the 
nineteenth century the race prejudice against the 
negro became stronger and all dark skinned 
persons were therefore included in the ban. 
Their classification became “persons of color.” 
This naturally threw the Indian and the negro 
closer together although the former had always 
felt himself superior to the negro. As early as 
1830 we find Indian-negro matings taking place 
among the Rivers in North Carolina. Many 
of the Indians had already mated with the 
whites. This completed the triple mixture of the 
races. Since then intermixing has continued 

198 


GENERAL SUMMARY 199 


with the results shown in the foregoing descrip- 
tion. 

It is evident from this study that the intellectual 
levels of the negro and the Indian race as now 
found is below the average for the white race. 
In the Wins the early white stock was probably 
at least of normal ability, 1.e., for the white. 
After the mating of this white Brown stock with 
the Indian, the general level of the white was 
lowered in the mixing. Since that time the group 
has mated either into itself, into negro stocks, 
which are necessarily below the level of the whites, 
or into white stocks which are known to be below 
the average mental level. Only one mating of 
better white stock into the Wins has taken place 
in more recent years, that of Amelia Brown, and 
the two resulting offspring, two women, have been 
of better calibre than the general run of the Wins. 
One of these two women had children and these 
three have been more energetic and active than 
the vast majority of the whole group. 

The whole Win tribe is below the average, men- 
tally and socially. They are lacking in academic 
ability, industrious to a very limited degree and 
capable of taking little training. Some of them 
do rather well the few things they know, such as 


200 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


raising tobacco or corn—a few as carpenters or 
bricklayers, but this has been the result of years of 
persistent supervision by the white landlords. 
Less than a dozen men work even reasonably well 
without a foreman. The women have had little 
training in household matters—the result is poor 
living conditions. A few who have been trained 
in white homes when young keep better homes of 
their own later when married, depending to a 
great extent upon the husband being able to fur- 
nish one. The children as well as the adults are 
for the most part fed the year round on an infinite 
variety of combinations of corn and pork products. 
There are only two families which raise any garden 
truck and only three homes in the area keep 
chickens. Once in a while they do some trading 
at a country store but even then they cannot 
count money making their purchases usually in 
terms of so many nickels. Very few could tell 
the value of either twenty-five or seventy-five 
cents. 

In their social relationships they represent a 
very crude type of civilization. With early 
adolescence and no social restrictions, excluding 
the influence of the one church mission, there is 
great sexual freedom with considerable illegitimacy 


GENERAL SUMMARY 201 


and even promiscuity after marriage. ‘They have 
of their own free will developed no means of amuse- 
ment for themselves and life appears to drag along 
from day to day in the same old dreary way. 

The persistency of Indian traits among the 
Wins appears remarkable when the remoteness 
of pure Indian blood is taken into consideration. 
When one sees a group of men walking along the 
county road they will always be found parading 
in single file and for the most part noncommuni- 
cative. They are all very suspicious but this may 
be largely due to their geographical and their 
even greater psychological isolation throughout 
life. For the most part they are extremely 
diffident, reserved, timid, graceless, taciturn and 
very humble. There is practically no music 
among them and they have no sense of rhythm 
even in the lighter mulatto mixtures. As is well 
known, the negro is “full” of music. Some of 
them have been given special training in music 
but no Win has ever shown any semblance of 
ability in this line. Not a single teacher or 
preacher has ever been produced by the group in 
its history and yet these characteristics are very 
typical of the negro. It would seem from these 
and many other observations that the negro 


202 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


temperamental characteristics are completely 
dominated by the Indian. 

Unquestionably the people covered by this 
study represent an ever increasing social problem 
in the South. Social consciousness has only 
begun to be awakened. Amidst the furor of news- 
paper and pamphlet publicity on miscegenation 
which has appeared since the passage of the 
Virginia Racial Integrity Law of 1924 this study is 
presented not as theory or as representing a 
prejudiced point of view but as a careful summary 
of the facts of history. 


APPENDIX 


THE VIRGINIA RAcIAL INTEGRITY LAW oF 1924 


1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That 
the State Registrar of Vital Statistics may as soon as prac- 
ticable after the taking effect of this act, prepare a form whereon 
the racial composition of any individual, as Caucasian, negro, 
Mongolian, American Indian, Asiatic Indian, Malay, or any 
mixture thereof, or any other non-Caucasic strains, and if 
there be any mixture, then the racial composition of the parents 
and other ancestors, in so far as ascertainable, so as to show in 
what generation such mixture occurred, may be certified by 
such individual, which form shall be known as a registration 
certificate. The State Registrar may supply to each local 
registrar a sufficient number of such forms for the purposes 
of this act; each local registrar may personally or by deputy, 
as soon as possible after receiving such forms, have made 
thereon in duplicate a certificate of the racial composition as 
aforesaid, of each person resident in his district, who so de- 
sires, born before June fourteenth, nineteen hundred and 
twelve, which certificate shall be made over the signature 
of said person, or in the case of children under fourteen years 
of age, over the signature of a parent, guardian, or other person 
standing in loco parentis. One of said certificates for each 
person thus registering in every district shall be forwarded to 
the State Registrar for his files; the other shall be kept on file 
by the local registrar. 

Every local registrar may, as soon as practicable, have such 
registration certificate made by or for each person in his dis- 
trict who so desires, born before June fourteen, nineteen 


203 


204 MONGREL VIRGINIANS 


hundred and twelve, for whom he has not filed a registration 
certificate or a birth certificate. 

2. It shall be a felony for any person.wilfully or knowingly 
to make a registration certificate false as to color or race. 
The wilful making of a false registration or birth certificate 
shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for one 
year. 

3. For each registration certificate properly made and re- 
turned to the State Registrar, the local registrar returning the 
same shall be entitled to a fee of twenty-five cents, to be paid 
by the registrant. Application for registration and for tran- 
script may be made direct to the State Registrar, who may 
retain the fee for expenses of his office. 

4. No marriage license shall be granted until the clerk or 
deputy clerk has reasonable assurance that the statements as 
to color of both man and woman are correct. 

If there is reasonable cause to disbelieve that applicants are 
of pure white race, when that fact is stated, the clerk or deputy 
clerk shall withhold the granting of the license until satis- 
factory proof is produced that both applicants are ‘‘white 
persons”’ as provided for by this act. 

The clerk or deputy clerk shall use the same care to assure 
himself that both applicants are colored when that fact is 
claimed. 

5. It shall be unlawful for any white person in this state to 
marry any save a white person, or a person with no other 
admixture of blood than white and American Indian. For 
the purpose of this act, the term ‘‘white person” shall apply 
only to the person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood 
other than Caucasian; but persons who have one-sixteenth or 
less of the blood of the American Indian and have no other 
non-caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white persons. All 
laws heretofore passed and now in effect regarding the inter- 


APPENDIX 205 


marriage of white and colored persons shall apply to marriages 
prohibited by this act. 

6. For carrying out the purposes of this act and to provide 
the necessary clerical assistance, postage and other expenses 
of the State Registrar of Vital Statistics, twenty per cent of the 
fees received by the local registrars under this act shall be paid 
to the State Bureau of Vital Statistics, which may be ex- 
pended by the said bureau for the purposes of this act. 

7. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are, 
to the extent of such inconsistency, hereby repealed. 





Sans lTache 





Sans Tache 


N THE “elder days of art’ each artist or 
craftsman enjoyed the privilege of independ- 
ent creation. He carried through a process 

of manufacture from beginning to end. The 
scribe of the days before the printing press was 
such a craftsman. So was the printer in the days 
before the machine process. He stood or fell, 
as a craftsman, by the merit or demerit of his 
finished product. 


Modern machine production has added much to 
the worker’s productivity and to his material 
welfare; but it has deprived him of the old creative 
distinctiveness. His work is merged in the work 
of the team, and lost sight of as something repre- 
senting him and his personality. 


Many hands and minds contribute to the 
manufacture of a book, in this day of specializa- 
tion. There are seven distinct major processes 
in the making of a book: The type must first be 
set; by the monotype method, there are two 


processes, the “keyboarding” of the MS and the 
casting of the type from the perforated paper 
rolls thus produced. Formulas and other intricate 
work must be hand-set; then the whole brought 
together (‘‘composed’’) in its true order, made 
into pages and forms. The results must be 
checked by proof reading at each stage. Then 
comes the “‘make-ready”’ and press-run and finally 
the binding into volumes. 


All of these processes, except that of binding into 
cloth or leather covers, are carried on under our 
roof. 


The motto of The Williams & Wilkins Company is 
Sans Tache. Our ideal is to publish books “‘with- 
out blemish”—worthy books, worthily printed, 
with worthy typography—books to which we 
shall be proud to attach our imprint, made by 
craftsmen who are willing to accept open responsi- 
bility for their work, and who are entitled to credit 
for creditable performance. 


The printing craftsman of today is quite as much a 
craftsman as his predecessor. ‘There is quite as 
much discrimination between poor work and good. 
We are of the opinion that the individuality of the 
worker should not be wholly lost. The members 


of our staff who have contributed their skill of 
hand and brain to this volume are: 


Composing Room: James Armiger, Austen Uhland, Andrew Rassa, 
William Koch, William Fite, John Flanagan, Herbert Leitch, Edgar 
Simmons, John Crabill, George Behr, William Sanders, Edward 
Rice, George Moss, Richard King, Walter Phillips, Theodore Nil- 
son, Henry Shea. 


Press Room: August Hildebrand, Fred Lucker, John Ellis, Andrew 
Becker. 

Proof Room: Sarah Katzin, Alice Reuter, Mary Reed, Lucille 
Bull, Ruth Treishman, Ethel Strasinger, Edna Clark, Audrey Tan- 
ner, Dorothy Strasinger, Arthur Baker, Geraldine Browne, Lillian 
Gilland , Angeline Eifert. 


Keyboard: Minnie Foard. 


Casters: Kenneth Brown, Mahlon Robinson, Ernest Wann, 
Charles Aher, George Smith, Frank Malonosky, Martin Griffen, 
Henry Lee, Frederick Wall. 


Folder: Lawrence Krug. 


BOOKS ON SCIENCE 
jor the General Reader 


Scientific books are sometimes of so technical a 
character that it requires special training or a special 
vocabulary to make use of them. 

Frequently, however, books of sound and funda- 
mental scientific value are written in such a way as to 
be understandable to the general reader. Such books 
have a tremendous influence on general culture, and 
make the finest kind of “‘good reading.” 

Here are some scientific books which will make good 
reading: 


SoctaL PsycHotocy—Dunlap - - - - - - $4.00 
Licut AND HrattH—Luckiesh and Pacini - - $5.00 
ESSENTIALS OF PSYCHIATRY—Henry - - - - $2.75 
MEDICINE: AN HIsToRICAL OUTLINE—Seelig - $2.25 
STUDIES IN HuMAN Biotocy—Pearl - - - - $8.00 
TREE ANcESTORS—Berry - - - - - - - $3.00 


WEATHER PROVERBS AND PARADOXES 
—Humphreys $1.50 


POPULAR RESEARCH NARRATIVES (2 VOLS.) 
—Flinn $1.50 


FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF Puysics—Heyl - $2.00 


THE WILLIAMS & WILKINS COMPANY 


Publishers of Scientific Books and Periodicals 
BALTIMORE, U.S.A. 


AS 


¥ 
vi ’ 


Teas 
] 
eke Ty } 
Pe ie ies 


i % twine’ 
3y : ine 


Bn GE 


b a ae ide a 


ee 


seh 




















Bi! Aa 8 ie: Ah, , 
% Re ion : hem i) « ay 7 : f 
to stiee h ock8 7 . el 
i anit 4 Be BS 7 ad - ‘ aa P 





lj ie p- 
fT RE 


ietet bt 


GAYLORD 


DATE DUE 





» PRINTEDINU.S.A. 


oa, Rn me Nm my a Py 88) 
ia Ne ; yt are : TT) a oa o°n aT 


4 






a vit ah We! ; ; at , ’ : " ' iy My f a 
Lei se 5. Th, pe ied a a hots i ; ‘ mY 
1 aon " era ig ‘ % Nea 4 P i ; tae Me Ms L ‘ i — : a », D 

1 aay ee a 
mM, y P piso’ 4. ’ ; 


y ; 7 yy, : 
j rie 4p : A “ 7" of 
_ - ae : 









